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Unchecking Enable phishing and malware protection in Chrome's browser settings page does not prevent Chrome from communicating with safebrowsing.clients.google.com and safebrowsing-cache.google.com (according to packets captured using Wireshark).

How can I disable this feature?

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3 Answers

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You could edit your hosts file, which will block the traffic. Maybe there is a less brute force way, but I'm sure this will work.

Add the following to it:

127.0.0.1 safebrowsing.clients.google.com
127.0.0.1 safebrowsing-cache.google.com

Your hosts file is found at the following location:

  • Windows XP and later: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
  • Linux: /etc/hosts
  • OSX: Systems Folder

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_%28file%29

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Fun fact: Google still uses other firm's ad-servers to pass on info about you if you block them or attempt to disable these services. – user64406 Jan 24 '11 at 15:06
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That is a fun fact, do you have any proof to back up the claim, out of interest? I'd like to see how they accomplish this and work on blocking them too...:) – Paul Jan 25 '11 at 0:11
Well, all since "goog" forensic analysis posts tend to "get disappeared" - all I can tell you is that proxy logs are your friend. – user64406 Jan 27 '11 at 19:40
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How to disable in Chrome: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=99020&hl=en

  1. Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar.
  2. Select Options (Preferences on Mac and Linux; Settings on Chrome OS).
  3. Click the Under the Hood tab and find the "Privacy" section.
  4. Deselect the "Enable phishing and malware protection" checkbox.

How to disable in FireFox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/

Phishing and Malware Protection options can be found on the Security Preferences pane. Go to Tools > Options... > Security.

(Uncheck "Block reported attack sites" and "Block reported web forgeries".)

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Wireshark shows Google Chrome still connects to Google even after unchecking/deselecting the "Enable phishing and malware protection" checkbox. – David H Mar 15 '11 at 10:02
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In response to Paul's post, the OS X file is /private/etc/hosts. Don't use 127.0.0.1 on OS X. Use 0.0.0.0. You want it to return no route, not a route to the localhost.

0.0.0.0 safebrowsing.clients.google.com
0.0.0.0 safebrowsing-cache.google.com
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