Google Plans New Privacy Feature for Chrome
Google is working on a new feature for Chrome to make users feel safer online.
What’s This New Feature? Originally named “Gnatcatcher,” this new tool hides users’ IP addresses by sending their online activity through special privacy servers.
Why Is This Important? There are growing concerns about secret tracking methods that use IP addresses to spot users without them knowing. Google is trying to tackle this by adding more privacy tools to Chrome.
How Does It Work? Users will have to turn on this feature. When it’s on, the tool will keep an eye on specific websites to see how users interact with them. To start, it will only look at websites owned by Google and users in the U.S., like Gmail or older sites like plus.google.com.
Google will use its own server to help with this at first. Later on, they’ll add more servers to improve user privacy.
The gradual launch means Google will keep tweaking the tool based on what users think.
When Can We See This in Chrome? According to a timeline, this tool is still in its early stages. But it might show up in Chrome version 122. This version is set to come out for testing on Wed, Jan 24, 2024, and for everyone on Tue, Feb 20, 2024.
In short, this new tool could change how we think about online privacy and ads.
