Google comes with Chrome update that makes detecting incognito mode more difficult

Google is coming with an update that says it closes an “unintended back door” that allowed websites to detect which Chrome users are browsing with incognito mode. It concerns Chrome 76; this release is scheduled for July 30.

Google makes it more difficult for websites to detect incognito mode by making changes to the so-called FileSystem API. The company does not fully explain in a blog post how it counters this detection capacity of websites, but Google will probably give websites the idea that the FileSystem API is still active, even if incognito mode is used. This could be because Chrome creates a temporary virtual file system in the ram of the computer used; thus no permanent files are left behind once Chrome is closed.

Currently, the situation is that the api is disabled during incognito mode, in order to prevent permanent files about the user’s activity from being stored on his device. This is an important signal for websites. According to Google, they then receive an error message, allowing websites to determine that a private session is in progress, after which the content of a website can still be adjusted for the visitor.

Google acknowledges that this could have consequences for, among others, news publishers, who now, for example, in certain cases use this back door to present website searchers with a limited number of free articles to view. When that number is reached, there is often a call to register, log in or pay, and the news article can no longer be read. Google describes this model as ‘inherently porous’, because it is based on the capacity of websites to track, usually through cookies, how many free articles a user has already read. According to Google, the change is therefore intended to guarantee the privacy of internet users.