I was just browsing for something pretty normal when suddenly I got a message saying, "Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot." I searched online and saw that many people think it might be due to Private Relay (which I don't have on and don't even understand), a VPN (I don't use one), or malware (I've run Malwarebytes and came up clean, plus I haven't visited any sketchy sites). Should I be worried about this, or is it just a glitch? I'm on a recently updated MacBook Air using Safari.
1 Answer
The warning you're seeing usually comes from a few common causes:
1. Your IP might be shared with others sending unusual traffic to Google, which can happen if you're using something like a VPN, proxy, or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) uses CGNAT to share IPs.
2. Alternatively, there could be malicious software on your device that’s causing this traffic.
If you're not using any of those services and you’ve checked your device for malware, it could be a glitch or just something minor. Just keep an eye on your activities and internet usage.
I appreciate that! I really don’t think I have malware and I'm on my own home network. Malwarebytes didn’t find anything, and I don’t have Private Relay or a VPN. It’s just confusing since I haven’t done anything suspicious on my device.