With Chrome 98, the browser gets some new features. This includes a built-in tool to take and edit screenshots, better-looking emojis, and a new Privacy Guide. Here, let’s see what the Privacy Guide is and how to enable and use it in the Google Chrome browser on phone and PC.
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What is Privacy Guide in Chrome?
While using Chrome, you give a lot of information to Google, which is primarily used to serve personalized ads. However, people who are conscious about their privacy may not be comfortable with it.
Therefore, Google has now added a new Privacy Guide feature to Chrome. Privacy Guide lets you review your critical Chrome privacy settings, tells what exactly they do, and the data you’re sharing with Google for them to work.
Since you clearly see what data will be shared, you can choose to keep it disabled. The feature is available as a flag and can be enabled on both phone and PC. Once you turn it on, it can be accessed on the Settings page.
How to Enable Privacy Guide in Chrome
To get the Privacy Guide, you need to update Chrome to the latest version and then enable the experimental flag. After which, you’ll be able to access it in the Settings menu, as shown below.
Update to Chrome 98+
Step 1: Open Chrome and click the three-dot menu.
Step 2: Select Settings and then About Chrome.
Step 3: Wait for Chrome to check for and install the latest update.
Alternatively, you can manually download the latest build from the official website here.
Enable the Privacy Review Flag
Step 1: Type and enter Chrome://flags in the address bar.
Step 2: On the flags screen, search for “privacy.” Or directly paste chrome://flags/#privacy-review in your address bar.
Step 3: Enable the flag for Privacy Review.
Step 4: Click Relaunch to restart the browser.
Using Privacy Guide in Chrome
Step 1: In Chrome, tap the three-dot menu and select Settings.
Step 2: Next, select Security and Privacy from the sidebar at the left.
Step 3: Click on Review my settings under Privacy Review.
Step 4: Here, you can see and change your privacy settings.
Privacy Guide in Chrome Mobile
To enable Privacy Guide on Chrome mobile, all you need to do is repeat the above steps and turn on the chrome://flags/#privacy-review flag. Once you do so, relaunch the browser. You can then access it in Settings > Privacy and security > Privacy guide.
Understanding the Chrome Privacy Options
1- Search and Browsing Optimisation
When you dive into the Privacy Review, Chrome first gives you the option to select whether you want to make searches and browsing better.
What you get:
Once you enable it, you get faster browsing, wherein Chrome will proactively load further content based on the current page you’re on. It will also show you suggestions in the Omnibox before you start typing.
Data shared with Google:
Google can see links to the pages you visit. The URLs are shared with Google to understand your browsing behavior.
2- Safe Browsing Protection
By default, Chrome uses Standard protection while browsing to protect against online threats like dangerous websites, downloads, and extensions. You can further opt for Enhanced protection, which takes it to the next level.
What you get:
Chrome predicts and warns you about dangerous events before they happen. It also warns if your passwords are exposed in a data breach. Apart from keeping you safe in Chrome, it may also improve your security in other Google apps you’re signed into.
Data shared with Google:
Chrome will send URLs to Google to check them for safe browsing. It further sends a sample of pages, downloads, extension activity, and system info to help find new threats.
Even though temporarily, it links this data to your Google account to protect you across Google apps and services.
3- Block Third-Party Cookies
The last setting lets you choose when to block third-party cookies. By default, Chrome is set to block third-party cookies only in incognito. But you can change it to block all third-party cookies.
What you get:
When you block all third-party cookies, sites won’t be able to track your activity from page to page across the browser. This will reduce personalized ads. But again, it may break features on some websites.
Data shared:
Sites can only use your cookies to see your browsing activity on their own site. For example, to keep you signed in or remember items in your cart.
Related | How to Turn On “Do Not Track” in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge
Wrapping Up
This was all about the new Privacy Guide feature and how you can enable it in Chrome 98. With the new update, Google has tried making it easier for users to understand the critical privacy settings, how it affects the browsing, and what data is shared with the giant. This increases the data sharing transparency with users and is a welcome move by the browser.
