Google has released an update for its Chrome browser, bringing in tow a bunch of changes.
First off, Chrome 76 blocks Flash even more aggressively than before. While previously Chrome blocked individual Flash elements on websites, something that almost every major browser is doing already, Chrome 76 is getting more aggressive with its Flash-blocking, with the entire browser feature now being kept to ‘off’ by default. This can be seen in Chrome’s Flash settings which now shows the toggle set to ‘off’ by default.
Another change that is coming with Chrome 76, is Google making it harder for websites to recognise when a user is browsing in incognito mode, something that paywall-enabled websites used to ensure people couldn’t get around the paywall using incognito browsing. This was tweeted by a Chrome developer, who said “Chrome Incognito mode has been detectable for years, due to the FileSystem API implementation. As of Chrome 76, this is fixed.”
Chrome Incognito mode has been detectable for years, due to the FileSystem API implementation. As of Chrome 76, this is fixed.
Apologies to the "detect private mode" scripts out there. 💐 pic.twitter.com/3LWFXQyy7w— Paul Irish (@paul_irish) June 11, 2019
This new change means that websites won’t be able to recognise when a user is using the browser in incognito mode, allowing users to bypass paywalls being used by some publishers that offer a limited number of free-to-view articles before asking visitors to subscribe to the website.
The new version is reportedly also bringing out a little something for developers who can now program their websites to automatically show a dark version when Chrome is set to use Dark Mode.
Chrome 76 is already rolling out, and if you want to check which version of Chrome you’re on, or update Chrome on your system, you can do so by heading over to ‘chrome://settings/help’.
