It’s not them, it’s us. Jk, it is them.
tl;dr — Google Chrome’s stance on adblocker plugins/extensions greatly increases consignment/resale stores’ chances of encountering malicious content when searching the Web. Thus, The Computer Peeps no longer recommend Google Chrome as an option for browsing the Web.
Google Removes uBlock Origin from Chrome
It’s not a surprise — Google has been warning about this for quite some time. If you’re not already aware, Google Chrome no longer supports specific plugins/extensions — specifically, effective adblockers such as uBlock Origin. Over the last few weeks, anyone with uBlock Origin installed in Chrome had it removed by Google. This puts storeowners at risk of real issues, especially if staff treat the fake pop-ups as legitimate and call the phone numbers provided.
Without an effective adblocker, it’s just a matter of time (usually only a day or two) before a customer encounters a click-jack attack and is greeted with one of these fake “You’re infected!” ads:
These fake, full-screen ads are intended to trick you into thinking something is wrong with your computer when in fact, nothing is wrong at all. The only issue is Google allowing the malicious search result in the first place.
I’m not going to get into the weeds on why Google is doing this or if it’s Google’s responsibility to secure their search results. Based on our data, if you search Google without an effective adblocker you are greatly increasing your chances of encountering a fake website that when clicked, does anything from pop-up a full screen ‘ad’ that tries to trick you into thinking your computer is infected, or even taking you to a phishing website that looks just like a site you trust — e.g. Facebook, Gmail, etc.
Peeps Recommend Firefox
From the day we opened back in February 2010, Mozilla Firefox was our recommended browser and what we deployed on any system we built or configured. Google Chrome became popular on multiple types of devices, so customers that had Macs or PCs would have used Chrome before and would ask for it. We obliged and want our customers to feel comfy using their computers + Chrome supported all of the adblockers/security extensions we utilized and recommended.
Despite Google’s Profiles which bypass extensions and greatly increase the risk of encountering malicious search results, we continued to implement Google Chrome.
Fast forward to 2025 and The Computer Peeps can no longer recommend Google Chrome as an option. Whether it’s on a Mac or PC, the types of ‘attacks’ you encounter while browsing the Web are the kind that don’t make a difference if you’re on a Mac or PC. Without something blocking ads, Javascript, etc. getting click-jacked and seeing a fake pop-up is cross-platform. It’s even better when you are on a Mac and you get one of these Microsoft pop-ups. 
Effective immediately, we will only be installing Mozilla Firefox (w/ Peeps’ Configuration Protocol applied) and any systems with Chrome will at the bare minimum be getting uBlock Origin Lite installed.
Image Credit: Claude AI (possibly our favorite image ever).
Post Title & Tag-line Credit: Chloe @ Peeps!
Dean
I am a Software Developer, System Administrator, and consignment software specialist. I currently manage hundreds of consignment workstations, point of sale systems, and database servers all across North America and I am the developer of Peeps' Software, Peeps2Go, and Peeps' Consignor Login for iOS and Android. I've been helping consignment & resale store-owners since 2003. I started The Computer Peeps in February of 2010. Peeps' Software launched in 2016 and is now on hundreds of systems all across North America. I have successfully converted hundreds of stores from all of the major consignment software systems. After 20+ years of working with consignment stores, I understand the unique challenges consignment & resale store-owners face. From electrical issues in old buildings or strip malls, to advocating for them when their old consignment software keeps crashing.