chrome Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Chipp.in Tech News and Reviews

How to add scroll buttons to Chrome’s tab bar

Posted on February 26, 2024February 26, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google Chrome has a hidden setting to enable scrolling on the tab bar. This guide explains how to enable the feature in the browser.

When you open a lot of tabs in Chrome, you will come to a point where no tab gets added to the tab bar anymore. This is only a visual limitation of the browser. Tabs continue to get launched, but you cannot reach them from the tab bar.

The reason for that is that Chrome lacks tab scrolling options by default. While there are other ways to access invisible tabs, for instance by using Chrome’s Search tabs feature, it is far from ideal.

You may launch Search tabs with a click or tap on its icon in the tab bar. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-A launches it as well.

Another option that you have is to use tab groups, as you may collapse them on the tab bar. Google added the option to save tab groups recently to Chrome.

Tab Scrolling in Google Chrome

Tab Scrolling in Chrome — Tab Scroll buttons in Google Chrome

The screenshot of Google Chrome’s interface shows tab scroll buttons. The left and right buttons scroll the tab bar in the selected direction. This is useful when the open tabs do not fit on Chrome’s tab bar.

How to show tab scroll buttons in Chrome

Here is how you enable Tab Scrolling in Chrome:

Load chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip in the Google Chrome address bar.
Set the status of the feature to Enabled.
Restart Google Chrome.

Note that Chrome displays scroll buttons only if too many tabs are open. The feature comes with configuration options. Tab scrolling does not change the minimum size of tabs in Chrome by default.

You may alter that as well by changing the status of Tab Scrolling.

The available customization options change the minimum size of tabs in Google Chrome. The following states are supported:

Tabs shrink to pinned tab width.
Tabs shrink to a medium width.
Tabs shrink to a large width.
Tabs don’t shrink.

The default state reduces the size of tabs to the pinned tab width. This is the smallest option. You may change that to medium, large, or no shrinking. Fewer tabs are shown then in the tab bar as a consequence.

Here is a screenshot of the medium width setting:

Other customization options

Chrome includes several customization options to further personalize the experience. The first option adds permanent scrolling buttons to Chrome’s interface, even if all tabs are shown on the tab bar.

The second enables drag scrolling. This does not require tab buttons to show on the tab bar, and may be an option for some users.

Chrome Tab Scrolling customization options

Here is how you enable and configure the options. First, the permanent scroll buttons.

Load chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip in the address bar of the browser.
Set the feature to one of the following states:
- Enabled — the default state.
- Enabled to the right of the tab strip — places the scroll buttons on the right side.
- Enabled to the left of the tab strip — places the scroll buttons on the left side.
- Enabled on both sides of the tab strip — places them on the left and on the right side.

This setting places a set of buttons or two sets of buttons to scroll tabs on Chrome’s tab bar.

Now tab scrolling.

Load chrome://flags/#tab-scrolling-button-position in the Chrome address bar.
Set the feature to one of the following states:
- Enabled — the default state.
- Enabled tabs scrolling with constant speed.
- Enabled tabs scrolling with variable speed region.
Restart Google Chrome.

This feature enables tab scrolling using drag operations. The default option scrolls tabs at a constant speed, the other accelerates based on how far to the right you drag the selected tab.

Closing Words

Tab scrolling is an experimental feature of the Chrome browser. This means, that it could be removed at one point by Google. The feature has been available for years, however, and it seems unlikely that it is going to be removed any time soon.

Now You: how many tabs have you open in your browser?

How to save Tab Groups in Google Chrome

Posted on February 25, 2024February 25, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

The ability to create tab groups is a powerful feature that most browsers support. It allows you to group tabs together, which improves management of tabs significantly.

Tab groups can be collapsed to reduce them to a single icon on the tab bar. Excellent if you need space on the tab bar for other tabs.

Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers support tab groups, but most did not support the saving of groups. Note that saving is different from syncing.

Saving in this context means adding all sites of a tab group to the browser’s bookmarks. Bookmarks are stored locally by default, but if sync is enabled, are synced with other data to other devices.

Note: you may see the save group option in many Chromium-based browsers, not just Google Chrome. The functionality is identical.

Saving tab groups in Google Chrome

You need at least one tab group in Chrome to use the save feature. All that is required is to right-click on the tab group label and select “Save group” from the options.

Chrome adds a new icon to the label to indicate that the group has been saved. The group is saved to the bookmarks bar. One easy way to verify this is by selecting Menu > Bookmarks and lists > Show Bookmarks Bar. You may also use Ctrl-Shift-B to show or hide it.

There is one caveat. The saving option synchronizes data between the tab group and the bookmarks bar. Any change you make to the group in Chrome is automatically synced to the bookmarks folder. If you close the entire tab group, it is deleted from the bookmarks bar.

To go around this, Google has added the option to hide and show tab groups. Hiding removes the tab group from Chrome’s tab bar without deleting the saved bookmark information.

You may then launch the saved tab group again with a click on its listing in the bookmarks bar. It remains saved there when you do so.

Closing Words

The Save Group option syncs all open tabs of a group to the bookmarks bar. This is useful in conjunction with the hide group option, as it allows you to launch tab groups only when they are needed and hide them the rest of the time.

The save option is not a backup feature, on the other hand. Since it syncs all changes, tabs are removed permanently if you close them.

How to remove an entire site from your browser’s history

Posted on February 19, 2024February 19, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

This guide explains how to remove all history entries of a specific websites from the browser’s Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox. It should work in most other browsers as well.

All web browsers record the websites that you visit while using them. The browsing history serves two main purposes: to highlight previously visited sites when you type in the address bar, and as a record for the user to look up previously visited sites.

Sometimes, you may want to remove sites from the browsing history. Maybe because you do not need a record of the site anymore or want it to disappear completely from the browsing history.

All desktop browsers include functionality to do that. Problem is, it is not clear exactly how it is done. Opening the browsing history displays all visited sites, but there is no option to remove a specific site from the browsing history.

Clearing the entire history works, but it results in a loss of all records.

Delete a site from Google Chrome’s history (and other Chromium-based browsers)

Remove site from browsing history in Chrome

The general method of removing a site’s records from the Chrome browsing history works also in all other Chromium-based browsers. It works in Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and all other desktop versions of these browsers.

Here are the required steps:

Select Menu and then History > History in the browser. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-H to open the history, or load chrome://history/ directly.
Use the search history field at the top to find all entries of the website that you want to delete. The best option is to type its domain name, e.g., chipp.in.
Scroll all the way down to the end. Chrome lists only some of the entries by default. You may also repeat the operation multiple times if there are too many records.
Now check the box of the last entry on the page.
Scroll all the way to the top.
Hold down the Shift-key and click the box of the first history entry. All entries are now checked.
Select the Delete option.
Confirm the deletion.

Here is how this looks in other Chromium-based browsers:

The process should work in all Chromium-based browsers. Most redirect chrome://history to “their” internal page protocol, e.g., vivaldi://history or edge://history/all.

How to clear a site from Firefox’s browsing history

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser supports a similar feature. It works differently, as it is not based on Chromium.

Here are the steps in Firefox:

Select Menu > History > Manage History.
Use the search field to find all records of the website.
Switch from the “Today” filter to “History” to see all records of that site.
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-A to select all entries.
Right-click on the selection and select “Delete pages”. Note that there is no confirmation.

What about other records?

Deleting a site from the browsing history removes records of visits only from this database. Other databases may still store information about the site. There is the downloads history, which may have records if you downloaded files from the site.

Sites may also place content on the computer, e.g., as cookies or site data. These do not get cleared when you delete the browsing history.

How to delete other site records in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers

It is relatively easy to delete site data and cookies in Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.

Select Menu > Settings in the web browser.
Open Privacy and Security.
Select Site settings on the page that opens.
Click on “View permissions and data stored across sites”.
Use the search at the top to find a site.
Click on the trashcan icon next to it to remove it.
Confirm the operation with a click on the delete button.

Note: this removes offline data and logs you out of the site.

Do the following to remove the downloads history in the browser:

Load chrome://downloads/ in the browser’s address bar.
Use the search at the top to find all records of a site.
Activate the x-icon next to each to remove the records.

Deleting site records in Mozilla Firefox

You may also remove cookies and site data records in Mozilla Firefox.

Load about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar. This opens the Privacy preferences.
Scroll down to the Cookies and Site Data section.
Activate the “Manage Data…” button there,
Use the search field at the top to find a specific website.
Click “remove all shown”. Firefox deletes the entry immediately without confirmation.

Here are the steps to clear all downloads from a specific site:

Select Menu > Downloads or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-J to open the Downloads interface.
Use the search at the top to find downloads from a specific site.
Use Ctlr-A to select all downloads.
Press the Delete key to remove all entries from Firefox’s history.

Google says it has optimized Safe Browsing in Chrome

Posted on February 14, 2024February 14, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Safe Browsing is a core security feature of Google’s Chrome web browser. The technology is also used by other browsers, often indirectly to improve privacy.

Google revealed in a new post on the Chromium blog that it has optimized Safe Browsing checks in the Chrome web browser.

The changes bring a performance boost to Safe Browsing checks thanks to the use of asynchronous checks. Some checks are also reduced to reduce their impact on the page loading time.

Safe Browsing: Asynchronous checks

Safe Browsing checks block pages from loading. This is a security precaution to ensure that malicious content is blocked before it can be loaded by the Chrome browser.

This is usually not a problem for local checks according to Google. Checks on Internet websites, on the other hand, add latency to the loading of the page.

Google Chrome 122 enables asynchronous Safe Browsing checks. This allows sites to load content during checks. Google says that this will reduce page load times in Chrome and improve the overall user experience.

Chrome continues to show a warning page if Safe Browsing determines that a page or one of its resources is problematic.

There is also potential for improving new artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms “to detect and block more phishing and social engineering attacks” according to Google. These experiments could affect the page loading time further in the past.

Risks associated with the change

Since pages may load while Safe Browsing checks take place, there is a chance of attacks.

Google says that it has evaluated two common attack types and concluded that sufficient mitigations are in place:

Phishing and social engineering attacks — Phishing sites may load while checks are still ongoing. Google believes that it is unlikely that users will have the time to interact with the site in a way that would impact security. Selecting a password field and typing the password, for instance, should take longer than the Safe Browsing check.
Browser exploits — Chrome has a local list of sites that attack using browser exploits. Checks continue to be made asynchronously and Google recommends keeping Chrome up to date to block most attacks from being effective.

Sub-resource and PDF checks

Two additional checks are listed by Google that are impacted by the optimizations.

Sub-resource checks — attacks using sub-resources are declining, according to Google. New protections, including intelligence gathering, threat detection, and Safe Browsing APIs, protect users in real-time without specifically needing to check sub-resources. As a consequence, Google Chrome will no “longer check the URLs of sub-resources with Safe Browsing”.
PDF download checks — Google reduced the frequency of PDF download checks. PDF documents were used for attacks in the past, but widespread attacks are rare thanks to improvements to Chrome’s PDF viewer. Google notes that most PDF files use links for attacks. These link may open in Chrome, which gives Safe Browsing a chance to block the attack.

Closing Words

Google benefits from the reduction in changes. PDF checks alone reduce Safe Browsing checks “billions of times” each week. The removal of checks may push certain forms of attacks again. Sub-resource attacks may see a revival as malicious actors find new ways to exploit the change.

Chrome users may check the browser’s Safe Browsing preferences under chrome://settings/security. There they find the two main options — standard and enhanced protection — as well as an option to turn off the security feature entirely.

Bug or Intentional: Edge reportedly importing Chrome tabs automatically

Posted on January 30, 2024January 30, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

At least for a year, some Chrome users reported that Edge imported data from their browser automatically. Back in May 2023, user Cerevox reported the issue on the official Microsoft Community website.

Cerevox claimed that Edge imported bookmarks and passwords from Chrome automatically. In November, another user claimed that Edge imported favorites and browser data from Chrome. Both said that Edge’s auto-import feature was turned off on their system.

Tom Warren, Senior Editor at The Verge, published an article today about the issue. He experienced the issue first hand according to the article:

Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update.

A post on Twitter by Tom Warren reveals that it was the KB5034204 update. It is uncertain if the update has anything to do with the issue. I ran two tests locally and could not replicate the issue.

Warren says that the Edge feature that powers the auto-import of Chrome data was never turned on by him. He decided to check on another laptop and experienced the issue there as well. After installation of the update and the obligatory restart, Edge opened with all tabs from Chrome.

Warren could not replicate the issue on any other device he tested though, which makes the issue puzzling.

There are two main explanations for this: it is a bug or it is a feature that is either in testing or rolling out to everyone over time.

Checking Microsoft Edge’s auto-import feature

Microsoft Edge includes a setting to import browsing data from Chrome automatically. The feature is off by default. Edge users may verify this by loading edge://settings/profiles/importBrowsingData/editImportConsent in the browser’s address bar.

If you see “Turn On” next to “Import browser data from Google Chrome on each launch” on the page, then it is disabled. Since turning on does not necessarily mean launching Edge, it is easy to accidentally launch Edge unless you have precautions in place.

There is a chance that the feature may turn itself on automatically. Things like these happened in the past and there is a good chance that they will happen in the future again.

The auto-import feature supports Google Chrome only. Even other Chromium-based browsers are not supported. The main idea behind the feature is to make the use of Edge more comfortable for Chrome users. It may be useful if you use both browsers.

This import is local-only according to Microsoft. However, Edge users who sign-in using a Microsoft account and enable sync in Edge will have the data synced to the Microsoft cloud. From there, it is synced back to any device on which the Edge feature is turned on.

Closing Words

Warren said that he noticed a window appearing and disappearing after installation of the update. He did not have time to notice anything or react to it.

It is quite possible that the auto import from Chrome to Edge is a bug. It is also perfectly reasonable to assume that this is being rolled out to all Edge users on Windows. The thing that makes me think it is the former is that the auto-import feature in Edge was turned off.

Microsoft Edge is not a terrible browser, but Microsoft is still pushing users around as if it was Internet Explorer in its prime. It is time that companies accept a “no” the first time.

The EU considers Edge to be insignificant in the world of browser, which is why Edge is not considered a gatekeeper at this stage. Windows on the other hand is a gatekeeper.

In closing, there is little that users can do if a bug or forced feature changes things on their devices. Complete removal of the offending app, in this case Edge, may be an option. This will soon be easier for users from the EU.

Now You: which browsers do you use?

This Chrome AI tool submits all URLs and titles of open tabs to Google

Posted on January 25, 2024January 25, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

It seems like some companies have entered into the “adding the most AI tools into products” competition. Microsoft seems to be winning, with its pushing of AI into lots of its products. The company introduced Copilot Toolbar for Android recently, and many future Windows devices will even feature a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard.

Google launched Chrome 121 earlier this week and announced new AI tools that it included in the browser. These are limited to a small subset of users at the time but will roll out to more in the coming weeks and months.

One of the tools is called Tab Organizer. Google promises that the AI tool helps users bring order to their tabs. It does so by finding tabs suitable to be put into tab groups.

Tab groups is an excellent tab management feature. Open tabs may be placed into groups, or created there directly. A group can be collapsed, so that it occupies just a single tab on Chrome’s tab bar, even if it holds dozens or hundreds of tabs.

Tab Organizer

Google announced Tab Organizer on the official company blog The Keyword as part of three AI tools for Chrome.

Google writes: “With Tab Organizer, Chrome will automatically suggest and create tab groups based on your open tabs. This can be particularly helpful if you’re working on several tasks in Chrome at the same time, like planning a trip, researching a topic and shopping.”

The feature is available to a selection of users from the United States only at the time. These users need to be signed-in to Google Chrome and they need to enable the Tab Organizer feature first.

This is done by selecting Menu > Experimental AI > Try out experimental AI features > Tab Organizer and then selecting relaunch.

Tab Organizer is then accessible via the Tab Search icon in Chrome’s main toolbar, by right-clicking on tabs and selecting “Organize similar tabs”, or through the Chrome Menu.

Google’s AI will then suggest to put tabs into specific groups. Users may remove tabs from the list of suggestions and rename the tab group for better identification. A click on “create group” creates the tab group based on the selections.

The huge privacy issue

What Google’s announcement on The Keyword blog does not reveal is that Google collects all page titles and URLs when the feature is used.

This is confirmed on a Google Chrome Help page:

When you use Tab organizer, the page titles and URLs of open tabs in the active window and your feedback are collected. As described in our Google Privacy Policy, this information is used to improve this feature, which includes generative model research and machine learning technologies.

In other words, Google knows about any URL and page title open at the time. Since Tab Organizer requires to be signed-in, it could also link the information to the Google account.

Google says that human reviewers may look at the data as part of the review process.

A policy is available for Enterprise and Education users to block the data collecting from happening. No such option is provided for other users.

Closing Words

Most Chrome users may want to avoid the feature, unless they have no problems that it submits all URLs and page titles to Google.

While the feature can be useful, especially if hundreds of tabs need to get organized, it may be better in most cases to use the feature manually instead to avoid any leaks to Google.

With AI tools, it seems to become necessary to ask about privacy implications first before even considering using a tool.

Now You: what is your take on this?

This script deals with YouTube’s Adblock Popup and Ads

Posted on December 4, 2023December 4, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

This year has seen a fundamental shift on YouTube regarding advertising and adblockers. Not only is YouTube showing popups to some users who use adblockers, to get them to uninstall them or buy YouTube Premium, Google is also working on making adblockers in Chrome less effective.

Without going into too many details. Chrome’s system for extensions will be updated in 2024 to only allow extensions that follow a new rule set. Called Manifest V3, Google claims that it improves privacy of users and combats rogue extensions. At the same time, it is also limiting legitimate extensions, many of which impact Google’s bottom line.

Most content blockers work fine right now. While you may get the “ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” popup message, it is easily dealt with by updating the filter list of the extension.

The change impacts other Chromium-based browsers to a degree. Some, like Brave or Vivaldi, include native adblockers that will continue to work.

2024 changes everything, or maybe not

Come 2024, things may not be as straightforward anymore. Extensions need to be updated by their developers to support the new rules set. Those that are not updated can’t be used anymore.

Those that are updated need to follow the new rules. Besides imposing certain limits on extensions, Google is also enforcing all updates through its Web Store.

Content blockers rely on frequent updates to deal with an ever changing advertising landscape. Advertisers may rename scripts or move them, and content blockers need to update filters before these are blocked.

Most content blockers rely on filter lists. These lists are updated directly at the moment. Once support for Manifest V2 is dropped, these updates need to be pushed through the Chrome Web Store.

One problem here is that updates take anywhere from a few hours to days or even weeks. Google is in control of these updates, and the situation will worsen only if everything is forced through the Web Store’s review process.

Imagine the following scenario: Advertiser A makes a change on the site. Filter lists are updated. Updates are pushed through the Chrome Web Store. The review takes hours or days. Until it passes the review, ads may be displayed on the advertisers property.

Now imagine an advertiser that constantly changes scripts and tactics.

Remove Adblock Thing

Extensions are not the only option that users have to combat advertising and privacy invasions on the Internet. There are several other options, including DNS-based solutions and also userscripts.

Remove Adblock Thing is such a script. You need to install an extension in your browser of choice that supports scripts. A popular option is Tampermonkey, which is available for Chrome, Firefox and many other browsers.

The userscript blocks YouTube’s anti-adblocker popup. Besides that, it will also mute, skip or speed up ads on the site to improve its usability.

Here is how you install it:

Download Tampermonkey for your web browser. The official website has links to all stores.
Load https://github.com/TheRealJoelmatic/RemoveAdblockThing/blob/main/Youtube-Ad-blocker-Reminder-Remover.user.js next in your browser.
TamperMonkey should identify it immediately as a script and display its install option.
Select install to add it to the extension.

The script works automatically on YouTube and it includes an update URL as well.

Closing Words

The main benefit of the script is that it offers another option to skip or bypass ads on YouTube. Even if adblockers stop working temporarily or permanently, you may use Tampermoney with this script instead.

Now You: do you use adblockers or userscripts?

Is Google turning Chrome into its agent?

Posted on November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

What would you do, if you were in control of the world’s most used search engine and web browser, and also the world’s largest advertising company? Would you keep things strictly separate, even if it would mean leaving billions of Dollar on the table?

Google’s control of advertising, to a large degree at least, and the Chrome web browser is a problem. The company has made several attempts in the past to push technologies that favor it through Google Chrome.

The oddly named Privacy Sandbox is just one attempt. Google uses the name to portrait an image of improvement for users of the Chrome browser. While not totally wrong, as it is a better system in some regards than the currently used third-party cookie tracking system, it is not the Holy Grail of privacy efforts Google portraits it as.

See, privacy sandbox is still about tracking. What sets it apart from cookie-based tracking are two things: first, that users are associated with interest groups instead of individual interests. Chrome looks at the browsing history and assigns groups to the user. Browse lots of car, sports or knitting sites? Chrome picks these as your interests and advertisers may use the information to display advertisement that falls into the groups.

Second, because it puts Google at the center of control of the feature. Google controls Chromium by and large, and also Chrome. If the system is baked into the browser, Google is in control. It can make adjustments and other changes, and everyone has to play ball to avoid being shut out entirely from the system.

Manifest V3

Privacy Sandbox is not the only attempt that mixes Google’s core interests, advertising, with the development of Internet browsers.

Manifest V3 is a new ruleset for extensions. Google had to postpone the release multiple times as protests sounded loud and clear throughout the Internet.

Apart from some technical issues, missing APIs and the like, Manifest V3 is clearly aimed at making content blockers and other privacy tools less useful. It would go too far to dive deep into technicalities, only this much.

Content blockers, such as uBlock Origin, reign freely under Manifest V2 rules. When they are active, they tell the browser what to do with certain requests. The browser then acts accordingly, for instance by blocking advertisement or allowing a video to play.

Under Manifest V3, that power moves to the browser. The browser controls the blocking and extensions may only make “declarations”. The extension would tell the browser to block or allow a certain element, and the browser would act accordingly.

Google’s explanation for this is improved privacy. Extensions are no longer able to access “potentially sensitive user data”, which in turn makes extensions safer to use.

The argument is flawed, as extensions still have access to the data. They may still use the old API, but only with read access. This means, that they can still access all the data, which in turn means that nothing is won or lost in regards to privacy.

Google announced this week that it will go forward with Manifest V3. Old extensions, those based on Manifest V2, will be disabled automatically for most Chrome users by mid-2024. Enterprise users may get a 1-year extension through a special policy.

Closing Words

There is a conflict of interest at work. Google depends on the advertising business and will go through great lengths to expand it and keep its dominance in the sector. To be fair, the vast majority of changes that are made to Chromium and Google Chrome have nothing to do with Google’s advertising business.

Still, some of the changes appear to favor the business over the interests of users of the browser.

It remains to be seen if the changes will lead to a mass exodus of Chrome users to other platforms. It is too early to tell, especially since the changes affect a sizeable but still relatively small part of the entire Chrome population.

Now You: do you use Google Chrome?

Everyone wants your browsing data

Posted on October 22, 2023October 22, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

On today’s Internet, data is as precious as gold was in the Ancient world. Browsing data is data that is created automatically when you browse the Internet.

Whenever you visit a website, lots of things happen in the background. Requests are made, cookies and site data may be saved to the local system, and the cache is filled with data. The browser adds a record to its browsing history and maybe to other logs, e.g., when files get downloaded.

Data stored on third-party servers is not considered browsing data, but it may be generated as well.

This browsing data reveals a lot about you. What you like or your interests. It may reveal how old you are, if you are ill or looking for companionship. It may reveal what you plan to buy next or have bought, what you may need or needed.

Browsing data is personal data. This makes it desirable for nearly everyone on today’s Internet.

Who wants it and why: advertising

When asked, most Internet users would probably mention advertising first. Today’s advertising on the Internet relies to a large degree on information. The more information about a user, the better the chance to display targeted adverts and produce sales.

Tracking plays a large role in this. Most Internet users would probably disallow tracking if there was an easy switch integrated in browsers. There is none.

Google would be in an excellent position to create such a switch: it controls Chromium, the world’s most widely used browser source and Chrome,, the world’s most widely used browser. It also operates some of the world’s most visited websites.

Google is, however, an advertising company. Most of its revenue comes from advertising, which means that it benefits from the system that is in place.

But Google is ending third-party cookies in 2024, I hear you say. This is true, but this is not done without introducing another system that works in its place beforehand.

Built-into Google Chrome directly, it analyzes the browsing history locally to assign interests groups to the user. Websites may also suggests interests based on your visits.

Sites and advertisers may use the information for displaying ads based on your interests.

Google calls these “Interests estimated by Chrome” and “sites you visit that define your interests”.

Granted, Google Chrome includes controls to turn all of this off. There is also a popup with information about this in Chrome.

As is often the case in life, the wording matters. Google calls this Privacy Sandbox, which is an euphemistic term. It may be better than tracking via third-party cookies, but it is still tracking in the end. By the way, you can already disable third-party cookies in your browser, no need to wait for Google to do so in 2024.

Quick Tip: disabling Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox

All you have to do is the following:

Load chrome://settings/privacySandbox in the Chrome address bar.
Disable “Trials” on the page that opens.

Note that this page is not final and that Google will likely make changes to it. You may also want to click on every option there to expand it and make sure it is turned off as well.

These are at the time of writing:

Browser-based ad personalization
Ad measurement
Spam & fraud protection.

AI wants it, too

AI has taken a big leap in 2023. New products release on a weekly basis. All of these have in common that they require data, lots of data.

It is used for training for the most part. A current trend is the integration of AI services into browsers and other programs. Even Windows 11 has its own AI integration, called Windows Copilot now.

These work best if they got access to user data. Personal data usually requires giving consent in these cases, for instance when the request comes from a user.

Microsoft is testing a new option in Edge Canary currently that gives Bing Chat Microsoft access to all page content. It is disabled by default, as it sends all browsing data to Microsoft “to make AI-generated answers and suggestions more relevant on Copilot”.

Not all AI products require access to personal data. The basic chat AI tools act on user input. Personalization, on the other hand, gets better with data. If an AI knows your interests, it may be of better service.

Take holiday planning as an example. If you ask AI for 5 sights in Barcelona, it may look like this: Gothic Quarter, Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, Casa Amatller and Park Güell.

If the AI knew more about your interests or personal information, it may have suggested different sights. Say, you love football or are travelling with young children or dislike crowds.

Users who like this may opt-in and maybe improve their experience with the AI. Whether that is also giving Microsoft more information and also better options to display targeted ads should be clear from the previous paragraphs.

Closing Words

Browsing data is valuable and it should be protected. Not everything is opt-in in today’s world and that is a problem. An upcoming tutorial will provide guidance on protecting browsing data.

What about you? Do you allow services to use your browsing data?

Don’t wait for Google to end third-party cookies

Posted on October 15, 2023October 15, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Google plans to eliminate third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser. An updated schedule, published on Wednesday, confirms that testing begins in the first quarter of 2024.

A total of 1% of Chrome users will join the test, which disables third-party cookies in their browsers. Google plans to push the change to the entire Chrome population by the third quarter of 2024.

The main purpose of this type of cookies is tracking on today’s Internet. While it is up for debate whether the disabling will have a positive effect on tracking, it is clear that it does eliminate a widely used form of tracking.

Google, being an advertising company first and foremost, has already created a system that it believes is better for the privacy of Internet users. Called Privacy Sandbox, it integrates the tracking directly into the Chrome browser.

Chrome analyzes the browsing data and assigns the user to interests groups. Websites and web advertising companies may use the information to display targeted ads. There is also an option for websites to assign certain interests to users. The system runs in the local browser, which, Google believes, is reason enough to use the term privacy to describe it.

You can disable these ad systems in Chrome for desktop systems and on Android; check out the linked guides to find out how.

Disable third-party cookies in Chrome

Block third-party cookies in Google Chrome

Most Internet users have no benefit from keeping third-party cookies enabled in their browsers. Very few may use services that require third-party cookies for functionality. The vast majority of websites and services works fine without third-party cookies.

It is therefore a good idea to test disabling third-party cookies in the web browser. If you run into problems, you can still enable the feature again to resolve it, or create exceptions for these rare cases.

Here is how that is done in Chrome:

Load this page in Chrome’s address bar: chrome://settings/cookies. It opens the Cookies and other site data preferences.
Select “block third-party cookies” under general. Chrome displays information about this when the option is set.

It states:

Sites can use cookies to improve your browsing experience, for example, to keep you signed in or to remember items in your shopping cart

Sites can’t use your cookies to see your browsing activity across different sites, for example, to personalize ads. Features on some sites may not work.

This is all that is required to block the use of cookies for tracking across different sites. Note that the change does not affect first-party cookies, which remain supported. These serve an important purpose, as they are often used to keep user’s signed in among other things.

All major browsers support options to turn off cookies entirely or only third-party ones. Most Internet users may want to block these cookies or configure their browsers to delete them regularly to limit tracking. Firefox users may want to check out this cookie banners article, as it explains how to do so in the browser.

Closing Words

Google’s crusade against cookies is self-preserving. The company makes most of its money from advertising and a lot of that money relies on tracking. The euphemistically called Privacy Sandbox is a continuation of that, albeit under different conditions.

The main danger of Privacy Sandbox is not that it continues to track users using a different system, but that it is an advertising system that is now integrated into a web browser. Google controls this web browser and also the open source core Chromium. Several developers of Chromium-based browsers announced that they won’t go along with Google, which is good for users of these browsers.

Problem is, Chrome has a commanding usage share and that means that the majority of Internet users will be enrolled automatically into the new system.

Now You: how do you handle third-party cookies on your devices?