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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Pop-Up Notification May Not be a Virus

March 2, 2022

We’ve all seen them. A window pops up on your computer screen announcing that you have a virus and recommends the download and installation of software to fix your “problem.” A Review Geek post suggests that what you may have experienced is a browser notification and not a virus pop-up. The notification redirects you to a webpage designed to capture personal data or get you to download some malware. If you try to close the window, it just keeps coming back. That’s because the site you’re visiting has code that requests the browser to display a notification. This means you shouldn’t allow pop-ups for any website you don’t trust.

What do you do? Perhaps you inadvertently allowed pop-ups from previous browser activity. You can follow the post instructions to check your browser notification settings for some of the more popular browsers.

  • Chrome: Open Chrome and paste “chrome://settings/content/notifications” in your address bar (without the quotation marks). Then, press enter.
  • Safari: Open Safari and use the Command+Comma keyboard shortcut to open Preferences. Then, select the “Websites” tab and pick “Notifications.”
  • Edge: Open Edge and paste “edge://settings/content/notifications” in your address bar (without the quotation marks). Then press enter.
  • Firefox: Open Firefox and paste “about:preferences#privacy” in the address bar (without the quotation marks). Then, scroll down to the “Permissions” section. Press the “Settings” button next to the “Notifications” option.

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