04 Apr Upgraded Chrome Now Able to Secretly Scan Files on User’s Computer
A number of users and some security experts recently expressed their concern upon learning that the upgraded version of Chrome is able to scan files on Windows computers.
Last week, Kelly Shortridge from SecurityScorecard tweeted that she found Chrome to be scanning the Documents folder on her computer in the background. She added while it seemed that the feature was clearly for security purposes, there was a lack of transparency and explicit consent was not asked which seems to violate Chrome’s own policy.
Head of Google Chrome security Justin Schuh explained that the tool is only intended to detect and remove unwanted software manipulating Chrome. It also only has normal user privileges, is “sandboxed” and users have to explicitly click to allow the tool to remove the files.
Source: Vice
