> Q: I don’t get, though — if you’re signed in to the browser but sync is off, then what does it mean to be signed in to the browser? What does it do besides sync?
> A: Not much, you can think of it like a Gmail login state indicator.
If that's fully the case, then there's nothing to see here and people are freaking out over nothing. Am I missing an important element here, other than that people don't trust Google?
Their current argument is that they aren't actually collecting that data- just getting permission to- but that's kind of sketchy and still leaves them open to other changes that do start collecting things.
The other big issue people have with this is that the use case they're talking about- accidentally logging into a site and not logging out- is an issue with all websites, not just Google. Adding a UI for Google services explicitly is something only Google could do, which makes their browser less "neutral". This is why people keep bringing up antitrust. By taking advantage of their monopoly to further entrench that monopoly they are breaking the trust of their users.
They aren't actually collecting that data because you haven't turned sync on.
I almost never visit the Economic Times, and I certainly never log in, but now it gets a chance to log me in using my 'real' identity, and there's even a popup to nudge me in that direction. Any site that implements Google Logins can do this, as far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure most people who chose to enable browser sync in Chrome didn't opt for this.
I think the Chrome team really screwed up on this by not considering how Google IDs are used across the web. And for what? The rather marginal scenario of eliminating confusion in shared-browser situations?
Or they knew the full implications and did it anyway, which is even more disturbing.
I simply don't trust a single corporation that much.