Chrome will start warning users about shady mobile subscription pages

Google has announced that, starting from Chrome 71, users will be explicitly warned when attempting to visit pages that try to trick them into signing up for mobile-based subscription services.

The warning

Pages that ask for users’ mobile phone details but show no information, poorly legible information or even hide information about the subscription will trigger a pop-up warning for users of Chrome mobile, Chrome desktop and Android’s WebView:

The warning will also be shown if the site administrator does not clearly explains the fee structure of the service.

Still, it won’t impact the website’s ranking in Google Search

“We want to make sure Chrome users understand when they are going through a billing flow and trust that they’ll be able to make informed decisions while browsing the web,” Google explained.

What can webmasters do?

The change is planned for Chrome 71, which is scheduled to be released in December 2018.

Google will try to notify webmasters of sites with unclear billing pages, either through its Search Console or directly.

Once they make the appropriate changes they can appeal to Google to review them and remove the warning.