Sneaky Chrome update could see Google track you even more online

YOU may be logged into Google's Chrome browser without even realising it.

If you're using the latest version -- listed as 69 -- and have logged into any other Google services with a personal Google account, it will have automatically logged you into Chrome.

This means that if you've signed into, for example, Gmail, then Chrome will be tracking everything else you do and tying that information to your Google account.

Previously if you didn't sign in to Chrome, then your wider browsing information was not shared with Google or tied to your Google account.

Information security expert Matthew Green blogged about the change over the weekend, having only just noticed the change which was rolled out earlier in the month.

"If you didn't respect my lack of consent on the biggest user-facing privacy option in Chrome (and didn't even notify me that you had stopped respecting it!)," Green asks, "why should I trust any other consent option you give me?"

Green also criticised the browser's interface, suggesting that it could trick users into thinking they're already syncing their data to Google having logged in, and so agreeing to send the firm even more data not realising this is a new option.

If you are unsure if you're logged in or not look in the top right, to the right of your address bar. If you see your profile picture (or a circle with the first letter of your name in) up there, it's logged you in.

Google claim they "made this change to prevent surprises in a shared device scenario".

Replying to concerns on Twitter, Chrome product manager Adrienne Porter Felt said that "people would sometimes sign out of the content area and think that meant they were no longer signed into Chrome, which could cause problems on a shared device," and so the firm had tied the two systems together.

Are you surprised by this sneaky change, and does it make you think twice about using Chrome to browse the web? Let us know in the comments.