Google Introduces Enhanced Real-Time URL Protection for Chrome Users

Google announced an enhancement to Chrome Safe Browsing that moves from periodic local hash-list checks to real-time, privacy-preserving server-side URL checks. The browser obfuscates URLs into 32-byte hashes, truncates them to 4-byte prefixes, encrypts and sends them through a Fastly-operated Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP) relay to prevent correlation of IPs and browsing activity, and then matches full hashes server-side; Google expects this will block about 25% more phishing attempts.