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Chrome 70 Will Allow Users to Opt-Out of Controversial Automatic Sign-in Feature

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Google Chrome Material Icon 450x450Google says it is willing to make changes to its new Chrome auto-login feature, following heavy criticism from privacy-conscious users.

In previous versions of the browser, it was left up to the user whether they wanted to log in to Chrome while they used the app.

However in Chrome 69, released earlier this month, if you sign in to a Google site like Google Search, Gmail, or YouTube, you also get logged into Chrome automatically, and there's currently no way around it.

Google originally claimed the feature was introduced to prevent data from leaking between accounts on shared computers, but the move has been criticized for its potential to make it theoretically easier for Google to upload users' browsing history. Google responded to the criticism in a blog post:

"We want to be clear that this change to sign-in does not mean Chrome sync gets turned on," said Chrome product manager Zach Koch. "Users who want data like their browsing history, passwords, and bookmarks available on other devices must take additional action, such as turning on sync."

Despite clearing that up, the blowback has apparently been vehement enough for Google to tweak Chrome 70, due in October, which will offer users a clear opt-out for the auto-login feature.

google chrome auto sign in

While we think sign-in consistency will help many of our users, we're adding a control that allows users to turn off linking web-based sign-in with browser-based sign-in – that way users have more control over their experience. For users that disable this feature, signing into a Google website will not sign them into Chrome.

In addition to the change, Google says it will update the Chrome interface to make a user's account sync state more obvious. Google says the way Chrome handles authentication cookies is also going to be tweaked to make sure they don't hang around once the user has successfully signed in.

Tags: Chrome, Google

Top Rated Comments

tangfish Avatar
101 months ago
Can anyone on this earth say with a straight face that Google willingly does anything in the user’s best interest with regard to privacy? I sure as heck can’t say that sentence aloud without laughing at the ridiculousness.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
101 months ago
I am so glad Google cares so much about our privacy on the internet.

/s
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
101 months ago
Opt-out? Which they know most people don’t know to do? Just to quell the bad PR?

This is why Google is scum. Not quite Facebook / Sheryl Sandberg / Zuck scum. But pretty close.

Anyone who uses Chrome at this point is a fool. Who knows what other sleezy thing Google is doing, which we will be able to opt-out of in the future once they get caught.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
101 months ago
And who knows what else is hiding all that Google code? Google, like Facebook, and all the others whose primary mission is data mining, will address only what they get busted for.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
Yet another reason to use the Brave browser - all of the goodness of Chrome without any of the Google evil.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
Doesn't this minor concessions show that they do, to some degree?
No. They just want to avoid "bad optics". Right now, there is a push coming for internet privacy. Despite their half-hearted attempts at paying lip service to privacy, their own CEO went on record as saying - and I'm paraphrasing - "no such thing as privacy, don't do anything you don't want us to know about". They pride themselves on being able to learn everything about anyone, and they throw nothing away. They've been caught numerous times gathering info where they shouldn't have. Go look up the debacle of "Google for Kids". They offered accounts to students in order to get their foot into Apple's educational stronghold. Cheap computers, with all the apps online, attached to Google accounts. They swore they weren't gathering personal data. When they were caught they insisted that security researchers were mistaken over what was going on. Then when it was proven, they insisted they would delete the info and never do it again. But they didn't delete the info, and they continued gathering the info. Its the actual, literal realization of that old saw we heard as kids: this will go on your permanent record, and it will follow you throughout your life.

Google, Facebook, and Amazon may own most of the internet by now, but they shouldn't get too comfortable. The internet is still somewhat of a wild west, and people are fickle. Unlike in the tangible world, changing habits on the internet costs almost nothing.
This is true, and its what I hold out hope for. I was part of the statist mob calling for the head of Bill Gates and the destruction of Microsoft, as I had personally witnessed their incredibly vicious tactics. They bought what they couldn't develop, they marginalized and ridiculed anything they couldn't buy, and buried everything else under lawsuits. I felt they were unstoppable. In my younger days I had no clue about how a truly free market worked. Not that we have had a free market in this country for the past century, but the internet provided us a "frontier", where people could expand without restriction. No one could have seen how Linux would unseat Microsoft at the top of the server software market, how Apple would make such inroads into consumer gear and media professional software, or how Microsoft under Ballmer would just make one misstep after another. Now they're a leaner company with an incredible CEO, and they're actually turning out good stuff. All without trying to wreck everyone around them in a miasma of ego.

I'm really hoping that some genius or team of geniuses comes up with a truly distributed system that defies government intrusion and mega-corporate influence. Good bye Facebook and Google. I'd like to see truly secure chat and email, and updated forums that make civil discourse easier. Things are too polarized now.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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