Google Chrome Just Rolled Out Major New Security Feature Browser now essentially blocks hackers from bypassing two-factor authentication.

[Condobloke]

May 30, 2026

Google Chrome Just Rolled Out a Major New Security Feature

The browser now essentially blocks hackers from bypassing two-factor authentication.

au.lifehacker.com

 

[piorunz]

Google Chrome should not be used. It behaves almost like malware.
...unless you are happy with their LLM running on your machine without any prompt or permission, and their AI possibly being trained using your data.

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!

Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month...

www.thatprivacyguy.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1t5qayz/chrome_removes_claim_of_ondevice_al_not_sending

 

[Condobloke]

Google Chrome should not be used. It behaves almost like malware.
...unless you are happy with their LLM running on your machine without any prompt or permission, and their AI possibly being trained using your data.

Agreed.

I am eagerly awaiting other browsers input to solve the same problem with session cookies.

 

[osprey]

Agreed.

I am eagerly awaiting other browsers input to solve the same problem with session cookies.

Currently it's possible to control the session cookies in firefox by using the Manage Exceptions facility found at: Settings > Privacy and Security > Manage Exceptions. One can block cookie storage for websites by configuration at the Manage Exceptions dialog boxes.

In my case, for example, I disallow youtube from storing a cookie on this particular machine at Manage Exceptions. When configured it appears in the listing like so:

https://youtube.com             Block

When checking the Manage Browsing Data listing at: Settings > Privacy and Security > Managing Browsing Data, which shows the cookies of the websites visited, youtube appears, but there is nothing in the Storage column, so I looks like firefox has not stored it. It's likely just in RAM.

The consequence of not storing the cookie is that each time I visit the website, in this case youtube, it behaves as if it's the first time I've visited it and asks me to "Try searching to get started". This situation works for me. It's a response to the problems I've had in the past with youtube blocking my requests because it detected an ad blocker on the machine. There's a thread here on that issue: https://www.linux.org/threads/about-googles-attack-on-adblockers.48228.

 

[bob466]

I removed google chrome when I saw this...

 

[Condobloke]

Thanks, @osprey
mission accomplished.

 

[piorunz]

I do the same via Librewolf profile. Main profile where I spend all the time, has cookies for google, gmail and youtube domains blocked. I am logged out from Google there, they can't track or monetize me.
If I want to watch Youtube while logged in, so I see my subscribed channels, I launch "Google profile" of Librewolf. Beast is fully caged.