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I personally know people who think they are signing into Chrome when they sign into google.com. Maybe the Chrome team is right about their larger user base?

mehrdadn 8y ago
I expect this is the case... I know I myself was thinking a few months ago why Chrome doesn't have the ability to keep the logins in sync. However, why in the world did they enable this by default for people who didn't want their browser to do anything with their Google accounts? It would make sense to keep them in sync when users request to connect their browsers to their accounts, but not when people don't want the two to be connected at all.
- dantheman 8y ago
  Because almost every user in the world wants it connected.
  - sea6ear 8y ago
    I've been in at least 2 corporate positions where there were strong reasons to separate your personal environment and your professional environment. I do not want synced browsers between my two environments. This change makes it inordinately difficult to maintain that separation while utilizing other parts of the google ecosystem.
    - tokyodude 8y ago
      I use two profiles for that.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
stefano 8y ago
The question is, what about other sites? Do they also think they're signing into Chrome when logging into amazon.com? Google services are getting preferential treatment over the rest of the web on a browser with a market share big enough to be subject to an anti trust case. Vestager must be licking her lips right now...
- tajen 8y ago
  Finally the EU Commission will be able to levy a hefty fine on monopoly abuse and get the money they wanted from Google. Then the GDPR. EU, sucking the funding that was supposed to go towards innovation.
davb 8y ago
They could support both use cases by popping up a dialog on sign-in to a Google web property: "You're signing into Gmail. Would you like to link Chrome to joebloggs@gmail.com? This will enable automatic notifications in Gmail, sync passwords and web history, and also automatically log into other Google websites when you visit them". "Yes / No / No, and don't ask again"
- hetspookjee 8y ago
  Excuse my cynism but the options would be: "Yes / Ask again later"
  - munk-a 8y ago
    You're on the right track but it'd probably be a modal popup with "Google is making things better by inventing foo and elevating bar to the height of technology, as part of this change we'll be cloudifying some technical data. [Accept and Continue?]" with a teensy tiny little x in the corner... possibly burying all these in a EULA update.
    - mortenjorck 8y ago
      I’m thinking just a banner along the top of the viewport with “Dismiss” and “Learn more…” buttons. The latter pops up a window with a small gray “More options…” link at the bottom, which invokes a modal with the options “Continue signed in as Alice” and “Manage Profiles…”, the latter of which allows you to disable syncing while simultaneously deleting all your local bookmarks and browser history.
      - buybackoff 8y ago
        These last couple of comments were probably some exaggerating pun... But after this story I was running privacy checkup, surprisingly found that my location history was on (after turning it off several times long before, which is a separate question why it turns on), turned it off again and then got 404 when trying to delete it. All this in a labyrinth of often circular links without much clue where the actual switch is.
grey-area 8y ago
Maybe the Chrome team is right about their larger user base? Maybe the Chrome team was wrong to introduce signing in to a browser at all?
- rifung 8y ago
  I imagine most people want their bookmarks/history/extensions/settings synced..
- merb 8y ago
  > Maybe the Chrome team was wrong to introduce signing in to a browser at all? maybe, but that would mean that all browser vendors did it wrong. (including mozilla)
  - CrazyPyroLinux 8y ago
    > but that would mean that all browser vendors did it wrong. (including mozilla) I think that's the case, and Mozilla is one of all your friends who are jumping off the proverbial bridge. (Posted from FF, not signed-in.)
  - grey-area 8y ago
    Safari doesn't do this (it's part of iCloud, which syncs all docs, not just Safari), and Mozilla doesn't tie signing in to website signing in. I do think this is quantitatively different, esp. considering Google's near monopoly on email accounts. They are tying website login to browser login, with the intent of merging the two - that's the problem. To users are Google who are fully invested in that corp having total control of their online life, this fuss will seem quaint and odd, but I do think it will have serious implications long term - people are turning away from search too for similar reasons - abuse your monopoly enough and people will actively seek out other options.
Aeolun 8y ago
I don’t doubt that the Chrome team is right about the problem the majority of their users are facing. It’s just that those users are also unaware of the privacy implications, and supplanting a bad problem with a worse one ain’t a fix.
stedaniels 8y ago
Most people have no idea you can even log into Chrome.

mehrdadn 8y ago

I expect this is the case... I know I myself was thinking a few months ago why Chrome doesn't have the ability to keep the logins in sync. However, why in the world did they enable this by default for people who didn't want their browser to do anything with their Google accounts? It would make sense to keep them in sync when users request to connect their browsers to their accounts, but not when people don't want the two to be connected at all.

dantheman 8y ago
Because almost every user in the world wants it connected.
- sea6ear 8y ago
  I've been in at least 2 corporate positions where there were strong reasons to separate your personal environment and your professional environment. I do not want synced browsers between my two environments. This change makes it inordinately difficult to maintain that separation while utilizing other parts of the google ecosystem.
  - tokyodude 8y ago
    I use two profiles for that.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

stefano 8y ago

The question is, what about other sites? Do they also think they're signing into Chrome when logging into amazon.com? Google services are getting preferential treatment over the rest of the web on a browser with a market share big enough to be subject to an anti trust case. Vestager must be licking her lips right now...

tajen 8y ago
Finally the EU Commission will be able to levy a hefty fine on monopoly abuse and get the money they wanted from Google. Then the GDPR. EU, sucking the funding that was supposed to go towards innovation.

davb 8y ago

They could support both use cases by popping up a dialog on sign-in to a Google web property: "You're signing into Gmail. Would you like to link Chrome to joebloggs@gmail.com? This will enable automatic notifications in Gmail, sync passwords and web history, and also automatically log into other Google websites when you visit them". "Yes / No / No, and don't ask again"

hetspookjee 8y ago
Excuse my cynism but the options would be: "Yes / Ask again later"
- munk-a 8y ago
  You're on the right track but it'd probably be a modal popup with "Google is making things better by inventing foo and elevating bar to the height of technology, as part of this change we'll be cloudifying some technical data. [Accept and Continue?]" with a teensy tiny little x in the corner... possibly burying all these in a EULA update.
  - mortenjorck 8y ago
    I’m thinking just a banner along the top of the viewport with “Dismiss” and “Learn more…” buttons. The latter pops up a window with a small gray “More options…” link at the bottom, which invokes a modal with the options “Continue signed in as Alice” and “Manage Profiles…”, the latter of which allows you to disable syncing while simultaneously deleting all your local bookmarks and browser history.
    - buybackoff 8y ago
      These last couple of comments were probably some exaggerating pun... But after this story I was running privacy checkup, surprisingly found that my location history was on (after turning it off several times long before, which is a separate question why it turns on), turned it off again and then got 404 when trying to delete it. All this in a labyrinth of often circular links without much clue where the actual switch is.

grey-area 8y ago

Maybe the Chrome team is right about their larger user base? Maybe the Chrome team was wrong to introduce signing in to a browser at all?

rifung 8y ago
I imagine most people want their bookmarks/history/extensions/settings synced..
merb 8y ago
> Maybe the Chrome team was wrong to introduce signing in to a browser at all? maybe, but that would mean that all browser vendors did it wrong. (including mozilla)
- CrazyPyroLinux 8y ago
  > but that would mean that all browser vendors did it wrong. (including mozilla) I think that's the case, and Mozilla is one of all your friends who are jumping off the proverbial bridge. (Posted from FF, not signed-in.)
- grey-area 8y ago
  Safari doesn't do this (it's part of iCloud, which syncs all docs, not just Safari), and Mozilla doesn't tie signing in to website signing in. I do think this is quantitatively different, esp. considering Google's near monopoly on email accounts. They are tying website login to browser login, with the intent of merging the two - that's the problem. To users are Google who are fully invested in that corp having total control of their online life, this fuss will seem quaint and odd, but I do think it will have serious implications long term - people are turning away from search too for similar reasons - abuse your monopoly enough and people will actively seek out other options.

Aeolun 8y ago

I don’t doubt that the Chrome team is right about the problem the majority of their users are facing. It’s just that those users are also unaware of the privacy implications, and supplanting a bad problem with a worse one ain’t a fix.

stedaniels 8y ago

Most people have no idea you can even log into Chrome.