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Chrome 71 will warn users about unclear subscription sign-ups

As you may remember, starting in December 2018, Chrome 71 will remove all ads on the small number of sites with persistent abusive experiences. In addition, the browser will warn users about web pages with unclear mobile billing services.

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Chrome 71 will show a warning before pages that don’t provide sufficient clarity to the end-user about a transaction. A new blog post reveals a change to how the Chrome browser will deal with tricky mobile subscription services.

Every month, millions of Chrome users encounter pages with insufficient mobile subscription information. Surprising charges that come from unclear communication are a poor user experience. That’s why starting from Chrome 71 (December 2018), Chrome will show a warning before these pages, so that users can make informed decisions when signing up to mobile based subscription services. Users will be offered the choice to proceed to the page or go back if they were unaware that they were entering a billing page.

The post explains what Google considers as an insufficient mobile subscription information. The following points are expressed.

  • Is the billing information visible and obvious to users? For example, adding no subscription information on the subscription page or hiding the information is a bad start because users should have access to the information when agreeing to subscribe.
  • Can customers easily see the costs they’re going to incur before accepting the terms? For example, displaying the billing information in grey characters over a grey background, therefore making it less readable, is not considered a good user practice.
  • Is the fee structure easily understandable? For example, the formula presented to explain how the cost of the service will be determined should be as simple and straightforward as possible.

If Chrome detects pages that don’t provide sufficient billing information to users, the following warning will be displayed to the user on Chrome mobile, Chrome desktop and Android’s WebView:

Chrome Unclear Subscription Warning

The owner of the web site will also get a warning via the Google Search console that the page needs to be improved. The web master should inform Google once he has made the necessary changes. If Google accepts the change, the warning will be  removed.

Chrome 71, which will feature this new protection mechanism, is expected to be released in December, 2018.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

5 thoughts on “Chrome 71 will warn users about unclear subscription sign-ups”

  1. This is great for people that is not much computer techy, like old people or like, because they always tend to write sensitive information without some concencious and can be easily cheated.

    In other things, Sergey have you ever thought about show the Date when the posts are doit, I feel a bit lost in time when I reply :D.

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