Chrome blocks third-party cookies in incognito and rolls out dns over https

Google will now automatically block third-party cookies in Chrome’s incognito mode. The browser gets a clearer privacy management, and supports dns-over-https by default.

Google has adjusted the menu in which privacy settings are managed. According to the company, the new design is clearer. Among other things, it becomes easier to manage cookies and users can choose to block third-party cookies in general. Chrome also shows more clearly the section that states which websites have permission to, for example, the camera or microphone.

All third-party cookies are now blocked by default in Chrome’s incognito mode. Users can then choose to allow such cookies via an icon in the browser.

Google is also adding an optional Enhanced Safe Browsing. This is an opt-in function that proactively scans URLs and downloads. The standard Safe Browsing does that too, but against a local list that is updated every half hour. With Enhanced Safe Browsing, the URL is checked in real time by sending a sample of a suspicious page to Google. If a user is logged in to Chrome, that data is temporarily linked to a Google account. This will be anonymized again at a later time.

Google will also start rolling out dns-over-https or DoH in the near future. DNS queries are encrypted via SSL. Chrome first checks whether the current DNS provider offers DNS-over-https. In that case, DoH is used automatically. Otherwise, the existing DNS settings will remain active.

Google says the new features will be rolled out to users “in the coming weeks.” This will initially happen for the desktop and the Android version of the app.