Chrome is getting a series of security updates that can improve your safety while browsing online. In a release, Google announced new features, including protection against abusive notifications, limiting site permissions, and reviewing extensions.
Chrome’s security monitor, Safety Check, will now run continuously in the background to take protective steps more promptly. The tool will tell you what steps it’s taking, including removing permissions from sites you no longer visit and sites that Google Safe Browsing believes are tricking you into giving permissions. It will also flag any alerts you don’t want and notify you of issues that need attention, such as security issues. Also, Safety Check on your desktop will alert you of any Chrome extensions that may pose a risk.
Google is also reducing the number of permissions for sites on Chrome for desktop or Android devices. The new feature will allow you to approve mic or camera access for a site just once, instead of forever. Instead, they’ll have to request your permission again the next time they use it. Also, Google is expanding the ability to unsubscribe from a site on Chrome beyond Pixel devices, making it available on Android devices as well.
As part of broader plans to transform immigration in the United States, the Trump administration has removed functionality from the CBP One app, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app used by refugees to seek legal entry into the U.S. along the southwest border. According to the CBP website, as of January 20, 2025, the app will no longer be able to be used to schedule appointments for entry, and all existing appointments have been canceled.
The CBP One app was introduced in 2020, and in 2023 it was expanded as a tool for refugees, quickly becoming the only way for migrants to “pre-schedule an appointment for processing and maintain guaranteed asylum eligibility,” according to the American Immigration Council. The New York Times writes that the app “allowed 1,450 migrants a day to schedule appointments for entry” and has helped more than 900,000 people enter the country by the end of 2024 since its launch in 2023.
Refugees were given no warning that the program is ending on January 20, and the Trump administration has not said what might replace it. Engadget has reached out to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for more information and will update this article if we learn more.
CBP One was mentioned as an issue for the new administration during the vice presidential debate, when now-Vice President J.D. Vance claimed there was an app that lets illegal immigrants schedule appointments and obtain legal status in the U.S. CBP One doesn’t work that way, and in fact the Biden administration’s use of the app has been criticized for dramatically slowing and complicating the process, leading some asylum seekers to wait up to six months for an appointment.