Chrome again exempts Google from user site data settings
- ID
- 21952
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 06 Sep 2026, 7:39 AM
- Fetched
- 08 Sep 2026, 5:23 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/9/1.html
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 08 Sep 2026, 5:27 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coderssaas_founders
What happened
Jeff Johnson reports that Chrome 152.0.7977.83 on macOS again exempts google.com from the browser's 'delete all site data on close' setting, a regression of a bug he first reported six years ago that Google previously fixed. He reproduced the issue on two Macs, confirmed it persists even with DuckDuckGo set as the default search engine and with Chrome sign-in disabled, and showed that google.com site data survives closing all windows while all other site data is cleared.
Why it matters
If you build web apps that depend on predictable localStorage/cookie clearing behavior across browsers, Chrome's dominant market share means this inconsistency could affect how users experience your app's data retention. For privacy-conscious users or teams recommending browser configurations, this confirms Chrome cannot be relied upon to honor its own data-deletion settings for Google properties — consider testing your app's data lifecycle in Chrome specifically rather than assuming spec-compliant behavior.
Discussion angle
Whether this is an intentional competitive advantage for Google's ad/tracking ecosystem or just a recurring engineering oversight — and whether builders should treat Chrome's stated privacy settings as unreliable when designing app data flows.