Doesn't that function depend on what Browser one is using, and if the option is even enabled to show what the actual URL actually is...??? Just a thought and I don't know, but maybe worthwhile checking by the user...
Every browser that I know of has a feature where if you hover over a link, the true link is displayed at the bottom of the screen. In some browsers that feature actually has to be enabled. (I guess that some folks find it distracting.) In Safari that feature can be enabled/disabled at:
In Safari --> View menu --> Show Status Bar
That feature is in the same place in Brave.
Apple's Mail has this feature, and it's semi-useful when receiving what might be a scam e-mail. You can easily check and see if the embedded links go to where they are supposed to just by hovering over them.
I said "semi-useful", above, because it's trivially easy to craft links that look like they are legitimate...but aren't.
However, it's very important to realize that, to my knowledge, there have been no malicious links of any sort that when clicked on *bad things* automatically happen to a Macintosh. Macintosh users don't have to be paranoid of clicking on links. You DO have to use some common sense when it comes to what you do after you have clicked on a link though. Don't fall for any scams that might appear on a page that you show up to. Don't accept offers of downloads from sites that you don't trust. Don't install any software that shows up in your Downloads folder that you aren't 100% sure that you downloaded volitionally from a safe source.
Also important, you should know that every single major Macintosh browser has a technology called "Safe Browsing" built-in. That feature links to a service that maintains a database of malicious Web sites as they appear, and your browser accesses that database and blacklists malicious Web sites so that you can't even visit a known malicious Web site if you try!
transparencyreport.google.com
