Google working on permissions in Chrome

[silversurfer]

"Google announced plans to make permission prompts in the company's Chrome web browser less annoying in February 2022."

When a Chrome user opens a site on the Internet that requests a permission, e.g., a maps service requesting the location permission, Chrome displays a large prompt in the top left corner. The prompt remains visible on the page until the user interacts with it, reloads the page or navigates away. The permission prompt has block and allow buttons, and an option to close it.

Google engineers looked at telemetry data recently to better understand how users interacted with these prompts. According to that data, permission prompts are either ignored or dismissed by an average of 85% of users. An additional 9% of users selects the block option to prevent the site from displaying prompts in the future; this leaves less than 7% of all users who select allow as the action.

The prompts stand out and insist that users make a decision, as they remain visible if the user chooses to ignore the prompt completely. The urgency of the prompt and the low number of users that interact positively with the prompts gave Google a reason to look for an alternative.

Starting in Chrome 98, Google users will see an animated chip UI in the browser's address bar when a site requests a permission. It displays an icon and the name of the permission that the site requests, and users may click on it to display the full prompt that allows them to allow access to the function that is requested or block it.

The request chip that Chrome displays will collapse to a blocked icon automatically after a short time to indicate that the permission is temporarily blocked. Chrome displays a blocked icon for several seconds before displaying just the site's lock icon again.

There are exceptions to the default behavior (there are always exceptions, are not there?):

• Chrome displays the full prompt for permissions that it deems "essential" and considers to be "generally not spammy". The permissions are camera, microphone, and camera paired with microphone.
• Chrome displays the full prompt if the permission was triggered "through a user gesture when interacting with the site itself".

Google rolls out the new functionality to all Chrome users over time. Chrome users who want to enable it right away can do so by enabling the following flags:

• chrome://flags/#permission-chip
• chrome://flags/#permission-chip-gesture
• chrome://flags/#permission-chip-request-type

A restart is required before the changes are visible in the browser.

Google is making permission prompts in Chrome less annoying - gHacks Tech News

Google announced plans to make permission prompts in the company's Chrome web browser less annoying in February 2022.

www.ghacks.net

 

[silversurfer]

Chrome: Google is adding a Permissions Tab to the Extensions Menu​

Google Chrome displays an extension icon in its toolbar that lists all installed and enabled browser extensions. The menu will soon feature a permissions tab to give users control over site access permissions.

The new extensions menu displays the tabs permissions and installed. You find everything that is currently available under installed. Permissions is new and a click on the tab displays all installed extensions and their rights to read and change data on the active site. Three states are currently supported: always, always on all sites, and when I click the extension.

Some extensions may require a specific permission setting; this is the case for content blockers or other extensions that become active on page load. Other extensions may not need access to all sites all the time; this can be the case for translation extensions or extensions that help you look up information.

Permissions can be changed using the new menu. Google seems to focus the permissions tab to read and write access only. Extensions may request other permissions, but these are not listed currently.

The new permissions menu is in testing currently. Chrome users who run the Canary version may enable it in the following way:

1. Load chrome://flags/#extensions-menu-access-control in the browser's address bar.
2. Set the state of the preference to Enabled.
3. Restart Chrome

Please note that the flag is available in stable versions of Chrome, but the full functionality is not yet implemented.

The read and write permission for each extension can be managed from the extensions menu from that moment on. Chrome users may access the setting on the extensions page in the Chrome browser as well currently. The new option improves the visibility of the option to users.

Chrome: Google is adding a Permissions Tab to the Extensions Menu - gHacks Tech News

Google is testing a new feature for its Chrome web browser that is adding a Permissions Tab to the Extensions Menu.

www.ghacks.net