Google said Tuesday that the company is redesigning some of its Google Chrome browser UI with an eye toward preserving user privacy, both in terms of the layout and what’s under the hood. The changes will be coming to the desktop version of the Chrome browser over the coming weeks.
Changes include communicating better about what data is synced with Google, and how the Chrome browser manages cookies, both in real-world browsing as well as in Incognito mode. Two other changes are being pushed out as part of the day-to-day browsing experience, including what Google calls Enhanced Safe Browsing as well as DNS over HTTPS.
Enhanced Safe Browsing may have the most profound effect on your daily experience, though the feature will essentially live in the background most of the time. Enhanced Safe Browsing checks whether webpages and downloads are safe—whether you’re browsing the web or in another Google service, such as Gmail. Google said that over the coming year this feature will be beefed up, with tailored warnings for phishing sites and file downloads, and cross-product alerts across Android and the desktop version of Chrome.