Hey Guys,
I was searching for a song title the other day using my Google Engine and I clicked on one of the search results and got the message "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!".

I wish they could have been more specific instead of freaking me out like that.

Needless to say, I backed out of the site and found a different one to look at.

Here is an example of what I got to see.

I know Google will try to identify sites that may install malicious software on your computer and display a warning message.

See here:
http://www.google.com/support/bin/an...y?answer=45449

I see this message every once and awhile, but I don't remember if it looks just like yours. I've only seen it once or twice.

I've seen it. But I also run Noscript. In my experience, they make a good effort but do not get it right.

Surprised they haven't gotten sued over that. They have to be flagging legitimate sites.

They wouldn't get sued for it as if a legitimate website noticed the warning they could contact google who would remove the 'potential malware' flag from the site manually.

If a non-legit website noticed it - they couldn't sue otherwise would expose themselves to numerous other charges of internet 'piracy' 'fraud' etc and be liable to imprisonment (depending what charges are thrown at them).

Originally Posted by Ganceann

They wouldn't get sued for it as if a legitimate website noticed the warning they could contact google who would remove the 'potential malware' flag from the site manually.

If a non-legit website noticed it - they couldn't sue otherwise would expose themselves to numerous other charges of internet 'piracy' 'fraud' etc and be liable to imprisonment (depending what charges are thrown at them).

Well said :1eye:

One of my forums have actually been blacklisted by Google in this manner. It was running Invision Board 1.3. and the hacker went into an admin account and inserted a malicious code in the board wrapper. I removed the malicious code and appealed succesfully against the blacklisting.

However, I am in a quandary of what to do with the site. To remove the problem, I really need to upgrade the software to IPB 2.2 but that would require the addons to be reinstalled as well. I just do not have the technical skills at the moment.

Derek

Yeah google can't get sued for this... It's there search engine it's there property they can do what ever they want!... Enough said its GOOGLE!

Respectfully I must disagree with all of you... Google could most definitely get sued for this if they are having false positives... for two reasons

(1) you can get sued for ANYTHING. now whether you win or lose the case is another matter, but you can bring legal action against anyone for anything at all.

and (2), if they are getting false positives, you could consider it libel... it is defaming the reputation of the website being so tagged, and if what is being warned against (malware I guess) does not exist on the website then it is false defamation which makes it libel

Of course, I am not a lawyer, so there is a good chance I could be wrong... but that is my opinion on this matter

I think it is unlikely that anyone WOULD sue, though, because as someone mentioned you could just contact google and have them remove the warning if it wasn't correct... it's a pain to sue somebody and usually costs more than it is worth, so I don't think anyone would actually sue unless google REFUSED to remove the warning.

But they most definitely COULD be sued

Originally Posted by Elemak

(2), if they are getting false positives, you could consider it libel... it is defaming the reputation of the website being so tagged, and if what is being warned against (malware I guess) does not exist on the website then it is false defamation which makes it libel

They'd have to prove damages, and the only damages would be loss of traffic. Traffic that they wouldn't have at all were it not for Google. I'm not a lawyer either but after my $xx payment from the class action clickfraud suit against Google, I'll bet my spurs that nothing comes of this.

I agree that most likely nothing will come of it. I am just saying that such a warning is libelous, as it can defame the reputation of your website and interfere with your ability to do business. You're right in that proving damages would be difficult. However, it would not simply be a loss of traffic. All it takes is one google searcher to tell their friends not to use your website because they saw a warning about it having malware, and now it is not just google's traffic you are losing, there is now word-of-mouth going around about your website containing malware.