Google introduced many new features in the new Chrome 69 version. While many of these were reasonably appreciated, some did not go well with users. As it turned out, there is a lesser-known change that users did not welcome gladly.
Google introduced an automatic sign-in mechanism in Chrome 69. Whenever a person logs in to a Google-owned website, such as Gmail or YouTube , the browser automatically signs the user into Google Chrome. Chrome then automatically sends all of the browser's information, such as browsing history, passwords, bookmarks, etc., to Google's servers.
Before Chrome 69, this sync feature had already been there for a long time, but it operated independently so that users could use Google services, such as Google Photos, Gmail, YouTube, without signing into Chrome.
Now, the browser automatically grants all user data. This is due to the fact that Google does not obtain clear user consent before syncing with Chrome. One of the Google Chrome engineers explained on Twitter that Google does not automatically start the data collection process without user consent with «one click»
According to some experts, the new design is very misleading and can be called «dark pattern». They believe the new user interface has hidden this «one click» in such a way that it is difficult to detect. As a result, granting all information to Google is only one click away, an event that could happen accidentally at any moment.
