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The latest version of Google for Google Chrome has triggered major privacy alerts.
Matthew Green, professor of cryptography and professor at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in a blog post this weekend a scathing article about the new version of Chrome in which he announces, from the outset, that he has finished Chrome. The reason?
"A few weeks ago, Google released a Chrome update that fundamentally alters the login experience. Now, every time you sign in to a Google property (for example, Gmail), Chrome will automatically sign the browser in your Google Account for you. This will be done without asking or even explicitly notifying you. (However, and this is important: Google's developers say it's not going to start synchronizing your data with Google.)
There has already been intense back and forth on what all this means on Hacker News. Similarly, the technical press has gone around the situation today. For its part, Green's frustration is the result of several key elements:
According to him, no one in the Chrome development team can justify Why this change was necessary and the explanations given no sense. Adrienne Porter Felt, Google engineer and Google Chrome browser manager, is interested in Twitter today to try to provide context. A Mashable The article basically summarizes his argument that "Google has decided to make this change … to put an end to any confusion that users may have when trying to disconnect from public or shared devices." Basically, Google associates Chrome and Google accounts, so you do not sign in to a Chrome service and accidentally sync information with another user's account. "
Here is Adrienne herself:
Which brings us back to Green now, which says, of course – if you're already signed in to Chrome and a friend is sharing your computer, you certainly do not want Google's cookies from your friend to be downloaded to your account.
"But note something critical about this scenario," Green writes. "For this problem to apply to you, you must already be signed in to Chrome There is absolutely nothing in this problem description that seems to affect the users who chose not to connect to the browser in the first place.
"So if connected the users are your problem, why would you make a change that forces Unsigned–in users to connect? I could waste a lot more ink asking myself about the mismatch between the stated "problem" and the "fix", but that would not bother me: because no one on the public side of the Chrome team has could square square this circle. "
His entire article is worth a complete reading. This part probably best sums up his post – and the same reason for other reviews on the new version of Chrome: "In basic browser mode," he says, "your data is stored locally. In "connected" mode, your data is sent to Google's servers. It's easy to understand. If you want privacy, do not log in. But what if your browser decides to go from one mode to another, all alone?
And let's not forget that this is the same company that landed in hot water last month to track user location history, even after users have made it clear that they do not did not want that to happen. Which means that "trust in us" is becoming an increasingly difficult pill for some people to swallow.
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