Don’t Mess With The Google Part 2: No, DansDeals Isn’t Infected With Malware. Yes, Google Is Far Too Powerful For Its Own Good.

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Update: Google has now cleared DansDeals from the malware warning.


If you’ve visited DansDeals from a Chrome desktop browser on Sunday evening, you probably got this message:

 

Sounds pretty scary, right?

Except it’s not.

An advertiser’s site was hacked and since we had a link to that advertiser, Google decided to flag DansDeals as well. This despite the fact that there is zero malware on DansDeals itself.

Chrome blocked all traffic to the advertiser, so I have no idea why it also had to block traffic to DansDeals.

Nor do I understand why it blocked direct Chrome desktop traffic and not direct Chrome mobile traffic. All search engine traffic to DansDeals was blocked.

Google’s warning is an outright lie and seems defamatory to me.

They admit as much on their Safe Browsing Site Status site that DansDeals doesn’t contain malware, but it might send you to a site that does (if you clicked on the link when it was sending traffic to an advertiser who got hacked).

 

I removed the link to the advertiser, but Google says they need up to 72 hours to review a site and take it off the blacklist. It’s ludicrous that Google can nearly wipe a website off the internet due to having a link to another site that was hacked, and give itself up to 3 days to restore service.

With Google and Google Chrome being the most popular search engine and browser on the internet, they have an incredible amount of power over where people can visit. Even if you know that there is zero malware on DansDeals, you would have to repeatedly click on “Details” on the red page and then on “visit the unsafe site” to get there.

Or you can use a browser like Firefox or Microsoft Edge/Internet Explorer to bypass Google.

It’s yet another reminder of what happens when we rely on one company too much.

Back in 2007 Google hosted this blog and decided to delete it without warning when they thought it was a SPAM blog while I was traveling in Israel for a month. That’s when I switched from ctownbochur to DansDeals and started hosting the site without Google.

In 2016 I reported on how Google banned the accounts of people reselling their Pixel phones in a post titled “Don’t Mess With The Google”. The story went viral and Google relented, but it highlighted the problems of too much of the internet being controlled by one company. When one company can give you what is effectively a digital death sentence, there’s a big problem at hand.

As Google’s ambitions grow to control smart homes and autonomous cars, it’s a reminder that Google can mistake you for a threat at any time and completely disrupt your life without any qualms.

It’s a good time to remind people to regularly use Google Takeout to make a copy of their data and to use other browsers like Firefox that aren’t controlled by a company that already controls too much of your online persona.

Are you too reliant on Google? Could you survive online if they disabled your account?

Leave a Reply

76 Comments On "Don’t Mess With The Google Part 2: No, DansDeals Isn’t Infected With Malware. Yes, Google Is Far Too Powerful For Its Own Good."

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Meno

Was wondering….

Ben

On chrome. Didn’t get the warning

Oy Google

Gives a whole new meaning to “Is it safe?” 😉

David Moskowitz

Oy! Der Google Hador
Is there really a way to undo our society is addictive this to Google? Without the government probably no.

y id

“Google Hador”, LOL 🙂

mk

Annoying! I was trying to check out your site yesterday and could only pull it up in firefox. Glad you are back up!

I appreciate the protection

Personally, I appreciate the fact that google flags a site if it contains links to sites that will infect my computer. Does Dansdeals have any mechanisms in place to ensure its advertiser links aren’t shady? If not, I’m thankful that google is doing it for us.

Moshe G

Anyone who does many searches with google also knows that they have a large liberal slant on what they let you see first.

Larry D

Donald trump said that so it must be true. NOT

Joe

Doesn’t matter who says it. You’d have to be blind not to see it.

Mike

Maybe I’m missing something, but why do you say that Google is wrong here? There were links on the site that would lead to the distribution of malware; no one is alleging that either DansDeals or the anonymous advertiser were doing it maliciously (as Dan said, “his site simply got hacked”), but it is a risk that the site(s) posed at the time.

Jim

Got the same using Safari. I clcked through and continues to the site!

AK770

Also happened to me on Safari

farmbochur
Josh

I couldnt get on from a google mobile browser either or from the Samsung web app on the galaxy. I was pretty mad about that

Joe

Off topic, but Google also flags PragerU videos as “hate speech,” whatever that means. I try to avoid Google whenever I can. I don’t like supporting Facists.

Yaakov

In Google takeout there’s no option to export photos?

Ari

Apple is my safe space…

Apple

Of course, Safari had the same warning

Walter W Stumpf Jr

Main reason I don’t use Chrome and try to avoid gmail and anything google.
Use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox for a browser. Use Outlook.
And there are plenty of email companies, even AOL is still used worldwide.

Monopoly

Makes no sense how a company this powerful controling 90 percent of the market has not been broken up uyet. A petition should be started to demand that the Trump Administration do something to squash them.

Gary

There are plenty of other options. They in no way have a monopoly on email, web browsing, or file storage. They’re just the most popular. This isn’t comparable to Windows only allowing Internet Explorer to be used on their OS.

Monopoly

They own 90% of the market share, anything above 50% you can have the anti trust laws thrown at you. Having many options does not negate the fact that they are a Monopoly.

rebyid

I agree that Google is a problem, but how is it in violation of the anti-trust laws, seeing as they’re giving away most of their stuff for free?

noname

nothing is free. they are selling you (your info) and making profit!

Sam

Dan, SSL and Anti-Virus trust that google are rolling out in its update in Chrome is good for the consumer it makes sure the site you put your details in is secure, while it might be a pain for you it saves people from identity theft and actual theft. The 72 hour time frame for the most part is due to the size of the internet and for the most part DNS/SSL/ trust updates will propigate a lot faster they just give you the longest time frame to avoid you sueing them. As with the size of google this is a problem the EU have been fighting but if people continue to use them the harder it will become!

Chaim

In year 2025, when we will be driving Google driverless cars, you might get an email which might sound relayed to terrorism. The next thing you know your car will pull off the road by the next deserted area, just in case the car might explode!

Relax

Where did you come up with this crazy theory?

ben

I was wondering what the hackers were stealing… HT’s?

HelpMe

If you site has links on it that contain Malware then your site is considered to have Malware. Pretty simple.

Tv7

Somebody’s a little salty lately! Google’s trying to protect your readers and you’re worried about losing a few clicks and your Amazon revenue? Give it a rest

AK

I got the same message on firefox.

me too

i find the results of the other search companies results far more diverse and informative.

Jason Smith

It is never a good idea for any company to get too big and have a monopoly. Just look at Microsoft and what they did with the FREE upgrade to Windows 10 – they put annoying warnings on peoples computers to upgrade, they made the upgrade a critical update (and then when they were caught said it was a mistake and changed it back to an optional update), and in some cases upgraded peoples computers without their permission (they even lost a lawsuit and had to pay $10,000 over this.) PC World even called Microsoft’s heavy handed tactics malware – like.

When you have a monopoly on the marketplace you don’t care what people care about you and have no incentive to give any customer service.

Jason Smith

A follow up to my original Microsoft comment, I forgot that there is a class action lawsuit right now against Microsoft for over $5 million over the windows 10 upgrade fiasco.

Shmuly G

You write Google “relented” after the pixel story. That’s only partially true. I had some longstanding accounts that were never reinstated despite repeated requests to Google to do so.

peeved

how long does it take google to remove you off their search engine once the comments you and were deleted on their website? someone i know made a stupid comment on ywn and asked them to delete it as he left his username as his email address and now every time he searches google using his email address his comments pop up on google even though ywn deleted them

Dan Lover

I love your deals and everything, but the same way you relied on apples monopolistic powers to remove a squatter from telegram, you should appreciate google saving us from malware on your site. Linking to malware is by definition containing malware.

joe

@dan was that link just a normal link or a link towards a javascript file to include in the website?

Dan Lover

I understand that its not pretty for the site owner, but googles job is to protect the user, and by definition that means if you link to malware even if it destroys your buisness, the user must be protected at ALL costs. Its not pretty, its not nice, I have had these kind of issues with apps that I built and I know how you feel, but it has to be done

Joe

Dan, Consider yourself lucky they reinstated you pretty quick, even if they decide to block someone for good there is nothing you can do.. its scary.

In the name of security...

@Dan, i dont understand why u feel a need to continue explaining urself to ridiculous ppl trying to make sense of and/or validate googles procedure. All us normal ppl get it. We are with u. Elementary logic suffices in understanding that it wasnt necessary.
Google is simply too powerful & no one can say or do anything about it. Most ppl dont understand just how intrinsic they are in tech & anything digital from here to Mars (quite literaly) it goes far beyond a search engin.
@Larry D & anyone else…
anyone that has traveled outside of the US, CA, DR, PR or anywhere in the Carribean will know that we here in the US censor our internet as much if not more than other countries. Perhaps not China or KSA but if thats is who we are comparing ourselves to, we have bigger problems than internet.

NV

Anyone can get infected or hacked including NSA, FBI, NASA, Central banks, SWIFT. If its hosted – public or private, it can be hacked. No one can deny for a persistent attacker. One of the involved applications thru Operating systems, tools, scripts, images could be susceptible and hacked at a weakest link. Hackers find new ways to infect. Blanket denying is burying ones head in sand. We take utmost care to fight hackers but when things go wrong, we correct. No one is 100% safe 100% times.

Of course.

Pretty sure the message I was getting yesterday when I went to your site was that your SSL certificate was not properly installed and your site could be considered unsafe. That could happen just by accidentally renaming your SSL directory or file.

I was asked if I wanted to continue and there was no mention of malware.

Yesitsme

@dan you’d be right if the only browser out there would be chrome, user could copy and paste links in other browsers when they see it doesn’t work in chrome, could be that’s what google is trying to avoid, after all it links to malware.

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