Google is bringing Chrome’s real-time scam protection to Incognito and Guest modes

Chrome’s Incognito mode is great at covering your tracks on your device. But keeping your browsing activity private shouldn’t mean getting less protection from dangerous websites. That’s one area where Incognito hasn’t quite kept pace with regular Chrome browsing, and Google is now working on a fix.

A new Chromium code change, spotted by Windows Report, reveals plans to bring real-time Safe Browsing checks to Incognito and Guest modes.

Chrome already warns users when they’re about to visit websites known for scams, phishing, or spreading harmful software. In regular browsing, Google can check websites against its latest list of online threats, helping catch dangerous pages as they’re discovered.

Incognito mode offers similar protection. However, instead of always checking Google’s latest information, it sometimes relies on a list of dangerous websites stored on your device, which is typically updated every 30 to 60 minutes. That delay can be risky, especially since Google’s own research found that most malicious websites exist for less than 10 minutes. A newly created scam website could therefore slip through before Chrome’s local list catches up.

Google wants to close that gap by giving Incognito access to the same real-time checks available in regular browsing. The change would work with both Standard and Enhanced Safe Browsing protection.

Google is also making sure these extra security checks don’t interfere with Incognito’s privacy features. The new system would keep temporary security information in memory rather than saving it to your device. Chrome would still contact Google’s servers to check for dangerous websites, but with protections designed to limit what Google can see about your browsing activity.

This builds on Google’s broader efforts to make Chrome safer, including stronger warnings for insecure websites and additional protections against online scams.

For now, the feature is still being developed and isn’t enabled by default. Google also hasn’t announced when it might become available to everyone.