Quick: Put simply, GPC allows you to opt out of having your personal data sold by all of the websites you visit with a single click.

Detailed: In recent years, there has been increasing scrutiny of privacy rights online. Everything we do online is tracked, followed and analyzed—all without our knowledge or consent. Considering how valuable and precious personal data is, it’s important that the decisions regarding what happens with the data are easily made by the owner of the data.

Right now in Chrome there is no global way for users to opt out of having their personal information sold or used in ways they don't approve of. Every website that needs to comply with legal mandates—or simply implement more progressive privacy policies—must implement an opt-out mechanism on its own.

The GPC is built to inform websites not to sell user data. This is different from other privacy tools that might limit tracking but might still allow user data to be sold (or to sell that data itself).

Google is devoting substantial resources to developing “cleaner” tracking models like Topics and Fledge. These maintain tracking activities and ad personalization while removing some of the rougher edges of the legacy cookie system. This is not enough. Google needs to stop interpreting what their Chrome users want for them and let them say for themselves.

Quick: Every time you use a web browser to access a website, your browser sends a signal to that site that says “Don’t track me!”

Detailed: A web browser sends a lot of information to a website, and a website sends a lot of information back to your web browser. This can be all types of information, including some that you might not expect. For example, a website will ask your computer for the size of your screen so the images appear correctly. One of the pieces of information your computer sends is a request for privacy using the GPC standard. At the moment, GPC is not universal, and there is no guarantee that some companies will adhere to the request. However, many programs (such as EFF's Privacy Badger) will block trackers even if the website decides to not comply with the GPC request.

Abine: The Abine Blur privacy plug-in for Google Chrome includes a toggle to enable GPC.

Brave: The Brave desktop web browser includes a GPC control.

Disconnect: Disconnect is a paid privacy app for iOS and Mac. It now includes a GPC feature.

DuckDuckGo: Both the mobile browser and Chrome plug-in include a GPC feature.

Firefox: The Firefox web browser includes a GPC feature.

OptMeowt: OptMeowt is a privacy-focused browser extension that includes a GPC feature.

Privacy Badger: The EFF's Privacy Badger is a popular privacy plug-in for common browsers. It now features GPC as well.

Quick: Apple Safari and Google Chrome currently do not offer the GPC feature.

Detailed: Safari has eliminated many third party cookies, while choosing not to use the GPC protocol. Meanwhile, Google Chrome is a laggard. It removed its FLOC system (a new and improved cookie) under fire, and is now offering up Topics and Fledge as substitutes. Neither provides users with enough control over the use of their personal data.

Quick: Incognito Mode, called Private Browsing on Safari and Private Browsing Mode on Firefox, are ways that browsers keep your browsing session only for as long as you keep the window open. For instance, if you log into a social media account in Incognito Mode, when you close that window you will no longer be logged into that site.

Detailed: The main purpose of Chrome’s Incognito Mode is to keep your browsing history private from other users on your device. It does not hide your browsing from your internet service provider or your employer, and it doesn't wipe files you’ve downloaded.

If you sign in to Google while using incognito mode, then your searches will again be logged and associated with your account (if that’s how your Google account preferences are set up) and Google can also be using its ad network and tracking technologies on other sites to track you on there too. It just doesn't keep that information on your computer, the way your browser does when you use the normal browsing mode.

Quick: Google Chrome’s developers accurately predicted how people would use the internet, rather than trying to cater to how people were using the internet at that time.

Detailed: Chrome was first launched in 2008 to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox. The developers of Chrome saw that people were beginning to use websites that were not static, but rather were much more interactive. People sometimes refer to sites like these as “Web 2.0,” but the fact is Chrome was able to support Web 2.0 sites more easily and reliably than the other browsers available at the time. Since then, Chrome's market share has grown as a result of being developed by one of the wealthiest companies that has ever existed on the planet, and advertising.

Quick: There are five major web browsers that make up a huge portion of the web browser market share. They are Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.

Detailed: We do not endorse any of these, we merely present them as alternatives. Browsers are tools, and like any tool you must use it with intention. These other four—Safari, Edge, Firefox, and Opera—are all pretty good one-size-fits-all browsers. They each have their own idiosyncrasies. Safari and Edge come pre-installed on every Mac and Windows computer, respectively. On that list, Edge and Opera, like Chrome, are built atop an open source browser called Chromium that was also developed and published by Google. Chromium is like the skeleton of a browser. Rather than using Chromium, Safari uses a framework called WebKit and Firefox uses a framework called Quantum. Apple, who developed Safari, also developed WebKit. Likewise, Mozilla, who developed Firefox, also developed Quantum.

Quick: A web browser is a program that allows you to . . . browse the web!

Detailed: The internet is made up of different files and programs that exist on computers, called servers, all over the world. Your web browser is a program that allows you to access those files and run those programs from your own computer. For example, a filetype you may have heard of is HTML (HyperText Markup Language), which is the kind of file that contains a basic website. Sometimes when you go to websites, your web browser will run a program as well as open a file. For example, if you go to Vimeo, a program might play a movie on your screen in addition to opening a file that looks like a website. These things can be done with your web browser.

Quick: Many web browsers, not just Chrome, are built on top of an open source browser called Chromium.

Detailed: Chromium functions as the skeleton for several browsers, most well-known of which are Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Samsung Internet, and Opera. Moving off of Google Chrome doesn't mean you have to stay away from Chromium-based browsers though! The ways Chrome intrudes on your privacy and tracks you to build an advertising profile about you are built into Chrome, not Chromium. Infringing on your privacy is certainly not a requirement for companies to develop a chromium-based browser.

Quick: There are several things you can do to get involved: sign on to our open letter to Google, give us a testimonial about why it is important to you that Google commits to real consumer privacy, and spread the word on social media using the hashtag #ChromePrivacy.

Detailed: You can do your research and talk to your friends and members of your community about these issues as they relate to the people you're talking to. This is only one of the many sources for information on Google Chrome's privacy invasions. Some other resources for learning about this and similar issues are here, here, and here. Don't be afraid to say "I don't know," because you can always follow that with "let's find the answer together!" or "let me find that out and get back to you!"