To all those who are using Google services like Youtube, Gmail, Maps, via Chrome browser here’s a quick update about the latest update which the internet search giant did not advertise to its user in any way till date.
According to ZDNet, the latest Chrome 69 OS version of Google is triggering immense privacy concerns among its users. That’s because whenever a chrome user would access Google services like Maps, Gmail and Youtube, the browser will take the user’s Google identity and save the data on the company servers.
This is being done with the inception of the latest ‘Sync’ feature which allows users info to be passed on to Google servers- like passwords, bookmarks, search history, interests, and others.
Security experts say that the SYNC feature was present in Chrome since 2014, but it did not save the browsing history to the servers until the user was logged into the account.
Now, a slight change has been presented to the work functions of SYNC by Google. And that’s as follows- Whenever a search or surf is done on Google services, the history, and the whole activity gets auto-linked to the account linked to the device.
Like if suppose, if you are using your brother’s Android smartphone loaded Chrome browser for internet surfing, all your surfing history can get linked to his account.
However, Google engineers say that the process of syncing data to Google servers doesn’t start until the user permits. But in reality, the auto-login mechanism was added in the browser and it’s doing the sync by default.
And to those who are still aren’t aware of the harm this feature poses, here’s a snippet. The forced login can help Google capture your browsing data which can include political opinions, health concerns and other private info- which can be useful to those who desire to influence the upcoming midterm polls.
Security experts suggest that this is an abusive privacy practice and can lead to serious consequences if/when exploited in depth.
