We reported yesterday regarding the privacy loophole that is found inside Google Chrome. This loophole would allow websites to see who is visiting from incognito mode to their websites.
Due to this, website publishers think that they are trying to circumvent paywalls or metered connection. And thus, browsing for those users would be different from normal users.
Now, Google says that users browsing the internet from incognito mode should remain private. For this reason, Google Chrome’s next update will fix the loophole. However, this means that the revenue of news publishers will be hit hard because of the patch.
Google says that “This will affect some publishers who have used the loophole to deter metered paywall circumvention…”. Basically, Google is saying that those publishers who used to give different browsing experience to users on the incognito mode will suffer.
Metered paywall is something where you are allowed to read a limited number of an article from the website for a day. Once you have reached the limit, you are blocked from reading more articles from that particular website.
The fix to this loophole on Google Chrome will mean that website owners will have to let everyone read free and unlimited articles. However, websites that have added paywall or subscription model which requires you to sign-in will not be affected.
Google says that the metered paywall system is “porous” as it requires to track the number of articles that a user has read. This requires the website to see the cookies of a user which is against the privacy of a user.
Google says that they are aware of “tactics used by people to reset” meter on private modes. Google also says that the news websites will now have to modify their metered paywall model and offer other options to its users.
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