[Sidnicious]

I work at Google, but all statements/opinions are my own.

My understanding is that there were two changes:

1. General responsibility for authenticating to Google services has been moved to Chrome, and being logged into Google is equivalent to being logged into Chrome. If sync is set up, logging back into Google also fixes your sync session, if it was broken (common — the warning in the toolbar is easy to ignore).

2. Sync has been separated from login as a Chrome feature, so that you can log into Google services without syncing Chrome’s data.

Confusion between being logged into Google (the Chrome new tab page looks a heck of a lot like the Google home page) and being logged into Chrome was a real problem. I’m not suggesting that this is the right solution… or the wrong one; this is weird territory.

It raises a question for both users and browser vendors: What does it mean to be logged into a web browser?

[bigiain]

> It raises a question for both users and browser vendors: What does it mean to be logged into a web browser?

And who - exactly - ever asked for the ability to "log into a web browser"? And what benefits are there for the user?

There would be zero confusion about "Am I logged in to Google or logged in to Chrome?" without the unwanted and unexpected existence of a "logged in to a web browser" status.

This is privacy disaster over a feature nobody wants. Except for the people who actively profit from privacy disasters...

[ewjordan]

I use several different computers and operating systems regularly, and it's really useful to have my browser history, bookmarks, extensions and other configuration synced up.

That's not to say I'd be miserable without it, but it's a nice convenience that almost immediately upon starting up a new machine, my browser is set up exactly the way I like just logging in.

[amluto]

This illustrates what may be the real problem. Chrome’s sync is a genuinely useful feature. There is no reason at all it needs to be conflated with being signed in to websites.

For that matter, sync is a fantastic use of E2E encryption, and it will be interesting to see if using sync data for any purpose other than syncing it is a GDPR violation.

[glennpratt]

I've happily used Chrome's Sync features for years with separate profiles for personal and $job. I use it across multiple devices daily.

https://chrome.google.com/sync

I appreciate people have different concerns, but also just completely fail to grasp them in this case.

[sm64]

That's just a diplomatic way of saying "so what if we logged you in". Well you don't understand how distrustful people are of Google these days, especially power users. I wouldn't give a byte of information about me to Google if I don't have to.

[bogomipz]

>"It raises a question for both users and browser vendors: What does it mean to be logged into a web browser?"

Which is a question so absurd that no user should ever need to ponder it. The question wasn't "raised." Your diction suggests it arose in some organic fashion and it did not. Let's be clear - the question was forced upon the user.