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In the past, I could refuse to sign in to chrome - and still be able to use, for example, gmail. I would just select the tiny "skip" link when presented with the sign in window.

With the latest version of chrome it seems this option has been removed. Now as soon as I sign in to gmail, chrome automatically signs in as well into the same account. If I sign out from under "people" in chrome settings, I am automatically signed out from gmail.

I do not want to sign in to chrome; I do not want chrome to associate everything I do in my browser with my account. Yet, I do have to use gmail and docs (it's a corporate account, I don't have a choice).

How can I keep using gmail without signing in to chrome?

Aleks G
  • 492

4 Answers4

10

Chrome 83:

Go to ⋮ > Settings > You and Google > Sync and Google services
and disable Allow Chrome sign-in.

Chrome 70:

Go to ⋮ > Settings > Advanced > Privacy and security
and disable Allow Chrome sign-in.

Allow Chrome sign-in
By turning this off, you can sign in to Google sites like Gmail without signing in to Chrome

Now, when you sign in Gmail, it won't sign in Chrome.

Pang
  • 1,017
4

After so much wasted time, I found the answer in this blog post:

https://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-disable-the-auto-sign-in-feature-in-google-chrome-69-522856.shtml

Navigate to chrome://flags/#account-consistency and switch the Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar flag to "Disabled". Relaunch chrome - and you're set.

Aleks G
  • 492
0

Another way to avoid Google forcefully signing users into Chrome is to use Ungoogled Chromium.

See the article Google is forcefully signing users into Chrome.

harrymc
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0

Chrome doesn't sign you in when you log in to Gmail, it just detects that you're signed in and displays your account picture. It was verified by Polish website Niebezpiecznik. They have tried to sign in to a fresh install of Chrome on a pristine OS. My rough translation:

On our office computers, even though our Google avatars appeared in the top right corner of browser's window, we weren't automatically signed in into Google accounts:

Expanded sync panel of Google Chrome, with user photo displayed but covered manually, and "Sign in to Chrome" button visible

So we've checked everything on a fresh install of Google Chrome on a clean OS and we've confirmed that when user signs in eg. into Gmail, they won't be signed in into Google Chrome until they click "Sign in to Chrome" and enter their Google accout password again.

To confirm their results, I have just installed Windows 10 in a virtual machine. Then I installed latest Chrome, navigated to gmail.com and signed in. Results:

  • I'm signed in to all Google sites
  • Chrome is showing my picture in top right corner
  • When I click it, it indeed looks like I'm signed in
  • But it's just misleading design - the large blue thing is a button that turns on sync
  • Settings actually look a bit clearer, there's also a blue button there, but it's smaller
  • Clicking the blue button enables sync. Until then, it's disabled.

Avatar menu just after signing into Gmail, with the misleading blue button visible:

Avatar menu just after signing into Gmail, with the misleading blue button visible

Settings just after signing into Gmail, with account name displayed, but with a smaller "Sync as [Your Name]" blue button:

Settings just after signing into Gmail, with account name displayed, but with a smaller "Sync as {Your Name}" blue button

An "You've turned on Sync" confirmation dialog that appears after clicking either blue button:

An "You've turned on Sync" confirmation dialog that appears after clicking either blue button

Community
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gronostaj
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