Google recently rolled out its Chrome 69 version. With it came many upgradations and changes. One of the changes that stirred a debate in the online world was the Gmail automatic login feature. Many people termed it as a breach of basic privacy rights of Google Chrome users.
What is the Gmail automatic login feature in the Chrome 69?
In the Chrome 69 update, Google changed the way users logged into different Google products through the browser. It added the Gmail automatic login feature in which a user is automatically logged into Chrome if he logs into one of the Google products such as YouTube, or Gmail itself.
Previously, there was no Gmail automatic login feature and the user had complete control over whether to log in or not to the Chrome browser.
User feedback on Gmail automatic login
As soon as the users got to know about the automatic login feature, the user feedback was not so good. Despite Google being resistant on its move, the users termed this feature as a threat to their privacy.
Google claimed that the feature was, in fact, added to improve the privacy of the users; especially on shared devices. When a user automatically logs in to his Google account, it prevents his cookies from getting mixed up with those of the other users.
Moreover, the Gmail automatic login doesn’t mean that the bookmarks, saved passwords, and contacts are now available to the user. To make those things available, the user had to do one more step; that is turning on the sync.
However, most of the experts were not convinced with the Google’s narrative and said that such steps could affect the trust that Google has built over the years through its quality service.
Rolling back the automatic login feature
It seems that Google has succumbed to the harsh feedback from the users on its Gmail automatic login feature. Hence, it has recently announced that it will gradually roll back the automatic login feature and will give an option to opt out from the automatic login.
This option will be available to the users when the next update to the Chrome browser, named Chrome 70 rolls out. But users will have to wait for the update if they do not like the current feature much. Or they can try other internet browsers such as Firefox.
