(You know, the ones that pop up like an overeager door-to-door salesperson)
Sometimes Chrome will ask if a website can show notifications. You click Allow once — usually while trying to close the pop-up — and suddenly you’re getting alerts about “Your PC is infected!!” at 3am. Charming.
Here’s how to take back control:
Open Google Chrome
Click the three dots in the top-right corner
(the “more options” button)
Go to Settings
Select Privacy and security
Click Site settings
Scroll down to Notifications
Under Allowed to send notifications, look for:
Anything you don’t recognise
Anything that looks a bit scammy
Anything you might call “dodgy”
Click the three dots next to it and choose:
Block – stops it immediately
Remove – removes permission and makes it ask again (no thank you)
Turn off future pestering:
On the same Notifications screen, toggle “Sites can ask to send notifications” to OFF
This prevents websites from ever asking again. Just keep in mind some websites do use this legitimately - such as Facebook, Email, WhatsApp, etc.
You may also need to:
Run your antivirus (obviously! 😉)
Check for troublesome browser extensions:
Three dots > Extensions > Manage Extensions
Remove anything you never installed intentionally
(“Free Prize Generator”, I’m looking at you)
No more fake viruses. No more “click here to win a new iPhone”.
Just glorious browsing… and cat videos. Probably cat videos.
Last updated: 04 November 2025
