Google Chrome wants to remove controls on cookies and site data

A software engineer disclosed that Chrome is planning to remove the settings page "Chrome: // settings / siteData", where the navigatedr manages website data, which gives the user less control over their privacy.

In Chrome settings, Google currently offers the page "chrome: // settings / siteData" which allows access to site data to delete them or change the default permissions granted to websites.

It basically provides granular control over cookies and site data, but it should soon be removed in favor of "chrome: // settings / content / all", which offers far fewer controls.

After the find, a bug report was filed in the Chromium problem manager. Since then, some members of the Chromium team have tried to find the cause of the error, seemingly without success.

A month ago I ran into a dark Google Chrome bug on macOS that caused the "All cookies and site data" page in Chrome settings (chrome: // settings / siteData) to load very slowly. You can view this page by opening Preferences, selecting "Privacy and security," "Cookies and other site data," and then "See all cookies and site data." I filed a bug report with the Chromium issue tracker. Since then, some members of the Chromium team have been trying to trace the cause of the error, a normal and boring process. However, this week I received an update on the subject that surprised me.

However, the developer said it received an update last week on the subject that surprised him, as content of the answer reads:

"We plan to deprecate this page and make 'chrome: // settings / content all' the place to manage storage."

It is difficult to determine Google's motivation for this change. It's also unclear if Chrome is actually wiping all site data when the "Clear Data" button is pressed.

Since this it's particularly the kind of concern Mozilla seeks to avoid by introducing an improved system to delete cookies in Firefox 91. This feature allows the deletion of cookies throughout the site. It is designed to block tracking not only from a website, but also from third parties whose code appears on the site, including advertisers and tracking companies.

This can be used to hide the identity of the user of a site by removing all accessible data. In addition, it can be used to erase all traces of visits to a site from the browsing history.

Google's initiative appears to be the exact opposite of Mozilla's. According to the developer, this decision made by Google has not been the subject of any public debate.

"As far as I know, this change has not been publicly discussed, and Google employees may have accidentally disclosed the information in my harmless bug report," he said..

Also, the developer finds this change very unpleasant.

“It robs the user of a lot of information and control. For what benefit? I hope to start a public debate on this and get Google to back off before it 'goes too far' on this change in Chrome, ”he said. By the way, before someone starts yelling 'Switch to Safari' or something like that, keep in mind that Safari is actually in worse shape and doesn't have any detailed information about it. Cookies and sites, "he added. .

He also mentions that Apple too often takes the approach of hiding important commands and information from users. For this reason, the engineer considers it regrettable that Google also intends to follow this path.

However, other comments believe that Safari has a page dedicated to managing and deleting cookies, although it is limited.

"In Safari, you can see a list of all the sites that have stored data in Preferences> Privacy> Manage site data (there is no display option here, just delete them)",

Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details in the original post at the following link.


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  1.   Paul Cormier CEO Red Hat, Inc. said

    Serious and worst is that they offer an excellent product ...

  2.   ArtEze said

    I imagine it is related to the terms of service of websites in general, if someone modifies a cookie and puts something unusual, a website can consider it as a suspicious hacking attempt.