Chrome 69 Automatically Signs Into Google Accounts

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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Chrome is the most popular browser on Earth, but many worry about the extent that Google uses it to track users and promote their own services. It seems Google took things one step further, automatically signing you into your Google account on the browser when signing into any Google service online. Tracking concerns aside, this can lead to a number of complications, such as cookies and browsing data diffusing between users who share the same computer.

For all we know, the new approach has privacy implications even if sync is off. The Chrome developers claim that with “sync” off, a Chrome has no privacy implications. This might be true. But when pressed on the actual details, nobody seems quite sure. For example, if I have my browser logged out, then I log in and turn on “sync”, does all my past (logged-out) data get pushed to Google? What happens if I’m forced to be logged in, and then subsequently turn on “sync”? Nobody can quite tell me if the data uploaded in these conditions is the same. These differences could really matter.
 
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I keep my home PC's Chrome permanently set to Incognito and tell it not to save anything. Kind of lame that I have to do that, but that's been the way the wind has been blowing for a while.
 
DING! Winner winner!! This ^^^^^ guy knows. Not only that make sure you always exit and close chrome every time you log into a site when you're done and before going on to something else.
 
Just switched to FireFox as well. Easy enough to switch back on desktop, but on mobile they want you to create a Firefox account to sync bookmarks instead of importing. They underestimate my resolve to avoid logins, so I just recreated them all manually.
 
Perhaps I am blind, but it seems that just signing into any google service will log you into the browser automagically. Signing out in the browser will sign you out of all other google services on the spot. Once you log back in, *BAM* you're logged into chrome again. Fuck this shit, done with Chrome.
 
Just switched to FireFox as well. Easy enough to switch back on desktop, but on mobile they want you to create a Firefox account to sync bookmarks instead of importing. They underestimate my resolve to avoid logins, so I just recreated them all manually.

I've been using Firefox Focus on mobile for a while now. It's a bit more spartan than the full build but I've found it much faster than the full build. If you're a browser power user on mobile it may not be for you but if you're privacy conscious and just looking for something that loads/displays web pages it's worth a look.

Perhaps I am blind, but it seems that just signing into any google service will log you into the browser automagically. Signing out in the browser will sign you out of all other google services on the spot. Once you log back in, *BAM* you're logged into chrome again. Fuck this shit, done with Chrome.

Google's been doing a lot of this shit lately. They're slowly trying to turn Chrome into IE was. First they insisted on having 'open' standards but then decided true open standards weren't moving fast enough so they pushed their own and are now basically breaking the rules they helped put in place and saying it's because the rules aren't up to date. The end result of all this being that Chrome is slowly becoming a browser that you have to use for some things to even work. I'm waiting for the day when Chrome is exclusively the only browser that will let you sign in to Gsuite or other services, about the only thing that's holding them back right now is the iPhone and Apple's App Store demands.

Finally, can anyone confirm whether Chromium is doing the same thing? I don't have an up-to-date build of it right now and don't have time to get one but I'd be curious to know if it does the same.
 
*sigh* Looks like google is trying to head down the same path as Microsoft (seriously, who wants a microsoft account?!)
 
Just switched to FireFox as well. Easy enough to switch back on desktop, but on mobile they want you to create a Firefox account to sync bookmarks instead of importing. They underestimate my resolve to avoid logins, so I just recreated them all manually.

Is that Firefox on Android? Have any issues with browsing at all?
 
First they insisted on having 'open' standards but then decided true open standards weren't moving fast enough so they pushed their own and are now basically breaking the rules they helped put in place and saying it's because the rules aren't up to date.
Kind of like the bs QUIC protocol that they silently enabled a while back. That's when I stopped using Chrome.
 
I'm just glad I never started using Chrome. I tried it out back around when it first came out but I didn't like it and stuck with Firefox. Since then I've basically abandoned Firefox on PC and use Vivaldi instead. I like Vivaldi quite a bit since it's basically the old Opera guys and I loved Opera way back in the day. I still have fond memories of Opera 2.x. Lightweight, fast, browser tabs and mouse gestures all before anyone else did it.
 
Kind of like the bs QUIC protocol that they silently enabled a while back. That's when I stopped using Chrome.

That's exactly one of the things I'm talking about. They've also been incessantly muddling with web standards over the past couple of years to where some sites have to be used with Chrome because it's the only browser that supports a particular bit of html/css/javascript.
 
Here's the fix, until they kill this flag -

chrome://flags/#account-consistency

Switch to disabled, restart browser, problem solved.

That might work on the release version (v69) but on the betas and developer builds it doesn't which leads me to believe - since I use v71 developer build - that they're just going to remove the ability for the end user to stop this in a few builds, if not sooner.

Google, what the fuck are you people doing?!??!
 
I have been using Firefox since somewhere around version 1.5 or so. It just works and does everything I want in a browser. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have used Chrome. I also don't use any Google accounts (except for my Android phone, but I never buy apps in the Google Play store). I have a Gmail account but almost never use it. Google just keeps making it harder and harder to justify ever switching to Chrome.
 
. . . .

Google, what the fuck are you people doing?!??!

Google's business is collecting data and selling it. The more they collect, the more they make selling it. Things like this are far easier to understand as long as you remember what Google's business really is.
 
Just switched to FireFox as well. Easy enough to switch back on desktop, but on mobile they want you to create a Firefox account to sync bookmarks instead of importing. They underestimate my resolve to avoid logins, so I just recreated them all manually.

While FF has served me well on desktop, mobile I have moved to DuckDuckGo and not looking back so long as they keep up what they are doing.
 
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Since you have to be logged in in the browser to see anything worthwhile on YT, I assume everyone is logged in via cookies. You don't have much privacy to begin with. I have trouble seeing what additional compromise this would bring. Not that I'm happy with Google Spying, but this is a given.
 
Use Brave Browser + DuckDuckGo.com as a search engine. Brave automatically blocks tracking cookies and prevents fingerprinting your browser. It is based on Chromium so you get the same performance. Now, if we just had a way to convince everyone to leave Facebook to go to a new social media network.
 
That might work on the release version (v69) but on the betas and developer builds it doesn't which leads me to believe - since I use v71 developer build - that they're just going to remove the ability for the end user to stop this in a few builds, if not sooner.

Google, what the fuck are you people doing?!??!

I wouldn't be shocked if the option disappears, along with the UI rollback flag.
 
Google's business is collecting data and selling it. The more they collect, the more they make selling it. Things like this are far easier to understand as long as you remember what Google's business really is.

They got rid of the sign out button in the youtube android app a while ago too, only way to get it back was to factory reset the app.
 
Fuck you Google.

Me, I use a fork, Vivaldi. But for other reasons.

It's actually really cool and has neat features you don't have in Chrome. I recommend you take a look! It might be a good alternative for you.
 
Domt use chrome, dont search for squat on my android phone cuz really why would i ever do that.
On this computer i use firefox, and at the moment i am testing the brave browser.

My friend use chrome on a very old office computer with a low end dualcore and 8 Gb of ram and onboard GFX, and it is killing him, man that pc are so unresponsive i myself get frustrated when i have to untangle his computer.

Lucky for my friend when i have build my new computer he get this core I7 3770 & 32 Gb ram + GTX 570 that are miles better than what he got, ill even throw in a ALU case from Gigabyte and PSU so all he have to do is get windows and i would recommend a SSD for C: like i have now.
I know,,, im a nice guy. :)
 
Anybody using Dolphin instead of Chrome or FF on their phones? Thanks for the tip on DuckDuckGo browser. Is there an import for bookmarks?
 
CHROME 69

tenor.gif
 
That might work on the release version (v69) but on the betas and developer builds it doesn't which leads me to believe - since I use v71 developer build - that they're just going to remove the ability for the end user to stop this in a few builds, if not sooner.

Google, what the fuck are you people doing?!??!

Looks like the flag goes away as they are moving to settings starting in 70 - https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/product-updates-based-your-feedback/
 
fucking shovelware.

chrome is so bad that people install it accidentally.

fucking google.
 
never used this parasite but I started using it at work a while back, it did what the title said (using the companies main gmail account) and I never noticed, if someone from work knew about https://myactivity.google.com/ before me I wouldn't be talking to you now, this spyware records EVERYTHING!!!
back to firefox at work & Vivaldi at home
 
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