Google’s Making Changes to Chrome, and Not Everyone’s Happy

Chrome 70 is yet another example of how divisive technology has the potential to be. On the one hand, a few of the changes have people excited about some clear benefits to security, but others worry that Chrome will no longer be as secure or as user-friendly. We’ll review some of the changes coming with Chrome 70, so you can decide for yourself.

Extension Restrictions
While Chrome’s biggest asset is quite possibly its extensive library of add-on extension programs, security concerns that have frequently appeared in these extensions have led Google to pump the brakes a little and impose some new requirements. For instance, with cryptocurrency becoming such a huge topic in recent months, many extensions dedicated to mining and even cryptojacking popped up. Google is now putting the kibosh on these supplemental programs. Furthermore, Google is going to hold developers in general to a higher standard, requiring their accounts to be protected by two-factor authentication and putting those extensions that require extensive permissions, or feature code that is hosted remotely closer under the microscope.

Security Measures
In addition to putting extra restrictions on its extensions, Chrome 70 has a few additional security tricks packed in, including measures meant to foil phishing attacks and protect the end user from their influence. Chrome 70 is also going to push education of its native password management tools. Perhaps most apparent to the end user, instead of confirming that a URL is secure to access, Chrome will warn users when one is not. This makes sense, as it reinforces that more websites should be secure than aren’t.

Login Concerns
Not all of these changes have received such a warm welcome. One change in particular alarmed many users when it appeared. Prior versions of Chrome have allowed users to access Chrome without logging into the browser. However, some users have noticed that Chrome now appears to log a user in, even if they are only using a single service.

The big concern with users here is that Google could possibly now share a user’s data, like their browsing history, something that the previous status quo didn’t require. However, Google has announced that this isn’t an indication that Chrome has been logged in to, it is actually a kind of “in-between” alert to inform a user of which of their accounts are currently logged in.

Of course, as we spend more time with Chrome 70, more things we like will emerge, as well as things we don’t like. If you’ve used Chrome 70, what do you think about it? Share your thoughts in the comments!