Users of Google services get a choice to log in Chrome 70 after criticism

Google is making changes to the upcoming Chrome 70 release after criticism arose about the browser’s automatic login when users were signed in to Google services. Google makes automatic login optional.

In the privacy and security settings comes an option that allows users to unlink the link between logins from Google web services and the browser. “If users disable this, signing in to a Google website will not allow them to sign in to Chrome,” Google wrote. This shows that it is an opt-out and users must therefore take an action to disable it.

Google is also tweaking the interface to make it clear that the login does not automatically mean that Chrome syncs data with the Google account. Finally, Google is changing the way Chrome now handles auth cookies. Anyone who now deletes the cookies in the browser will retain their Google-auth cookies to remain logged in. Google will stop this preferential treatment and let Chrome delete all cookies, after which users are logged out.

Google says it appreciates any feedback that led to these changes. That feedback concerns criticism that grew after more and more people noticed the automatic login. Google now clarifies that the function called sign-in consistency should provide clarity about the login status. The company claims to have received feedback that users found the login status unclear and inadvertently performed searches and visits while the browser was syncing with someone else’s account.

Google Chrome 70 will be released sometime in mid-October.