Google Chrome To Support Same-Site Cookies, Get Anti-Fingerprinting Protection

Google plans to add support for two new privacy and security features in Chrome, namely same-site cookies and anti-fingerprinting protection. From a report: The biggest change that Google plans to roll out is in regards to how it treats cookie files. These new controls will be based on a new IETF standard that Chrome and Mozilla developers have been working on for more than three years. This new IETF specification describes a new attribute that can be set inside HTTP headers. Called 'SameSite,' the attribute must be set by the website owner and should describe the situations in which a site's cookies can be loaded.

Google engineers also announced a second major new privacy feature for Chrome. According to Google, the company plans to add support for blocking certain types of 'user fingerprinting' techniques that are being abused by online advertisers. Google didn't go into details of what types of user fingerprinting techniques it was planning to block. It is worth mentioning that there are many, which range from scanning locally installed system fonts to abusing the HTML5 canvas element, and from measuring a user's device screen size to reading locally installed extensions.

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