Incognito Mode Update Hinders Publisher Paywalls
September 3, 2019
Google’s effort to bolster the privacies of Chrome’s Incognito Mode does not sit well with one writer at BetaNews. Randall C. Kennedy insists, “Google Declares War on Private Property.” The headline seems to conflate the term “private” with “proprietary,” but never mind. The point is the fix makes it easier for dishonest readers to avoid paywalls, and that is a cause for concern. The write-up explains:
“Google has announced that it is closing a loophole that allowed website operators to detect whether someone was viewing their content under the browser’s Incognito Mode. This detection had become an important part of enforcing paywall restrictions since even tech-unsavvy visitors had learned to bypass the free per-month trial article counts at sites like nytimes.com by visiting them with Incognito Mode active (and thus disabling the sites’ ability to track how many free articles the user read via a cookie.) The content publishing community’s response to this blatant theft of property has been to simply block users from visiting their sites under Incognito Mode. And the way they detect if the mode is active is by monitoring the Chrome FileSystem API and looking for signs of private browsing. Now, with version 76, Google has closed this API ‘loophole’ and is promising to continue thwarting any future workarounds that seek to identify Incognito Mode browsing activity.”
Google says the change is to protect those who would circumvent censorship in repressive nations. However, in doing so, it thwarts publishers who desperately need, and deserve, to get paid for their work. Kennedy suspects Google’s real motivation is its own profits—if content creators cannot enforce paywalls, he reasons, their only recourse will be to display Google’s ads alongside their content. Perhaps.
Cynthia Murrell, September 3, 2019
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