“Whether intentional or not, it has the effect of making it easy for people to activate sync without knowing it, or to think they’re already syncing and thus there’s no additional cost to increasing Google’s access to their data,” Green wrote in his blog post. It’s convenient, for sure, but some users opt not to turn it on at all due to privacy concerns. In case you didn’t know, Google Sync is a feature that automatically uploads your browser activity, bookmarks, passwords, and other data to Google’s servers so you can access them across multiple computers and gadgets. For Green, it’s a worrying change since this could mean that Chrome is automatically enabling Google’s “Sync” feature without a user’s permission. In Chrome 69, the only indicator that you’re logged in is that your Google profile picture is displayed on the upper-right hand corner of the browser. “It’ll do this without asking, or even explicitly notifying you. “From now on, every time you log into a Google property (for example, Gmail),” Chrome will automatically sign the browser into your Google account for you,” Green warned. In a blog post, Mathew Green, a cryptography professor at John Hopkins University, explained this subtle change has “serious implications for privacy and trust.”
Privacy advocates are crying foul since this “forced login” can fool unsuspecting Chrome users into handing their personal browsing data without realizing it. Now, each time you sign in and use a Google service like Gmail, Maps or YouTube, your Google account will be automatically logged in to the Chrome browser you’re using, too. Well, it looks like this policy has changed in Chrome 69. In the past, if you don’t log in to Chrome with a Google account, your browsing activity is only stored locally on the machine you are using.įun Fact: Google was founded on Sept. This distinction is important for people who don’t want their personal Chrome browser data sent to Google’s servers without their permission. Forced Chrome loginsĭo you always keep your Google services and your Chrome browsing activity separate? For example, there may be times when you want to check your Gmail account without necessarily logging in to the Chrome browser itself. Read on and I’ll tell you about this little detail that Google sneaked in with Chrome 69 that may be violating your privacy. But as it turns out, this is not the only change that has privacy and security-minded Chrome users up in arms.
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