Google Chrome 76 arrives, makes it harder to use Flash and easier to dodge paywalls | The Verge

Unsurprisingly, the detailed release overview at New in Chrome 76 | Google Developers neglects to mention the paywall permeability part (which appears to be an "actual results may vary" proposition anyway, e.g., the WSJ and Bloomberg Businessweek paywalls still work in Chrome 76 Incognito mode)

"While Adobe Flash won’t truly die till 2020 and has been blocked by every major browser in one way or another for several years now, Chrome 76 is taking it one step further. Not only are individual Flash items blocked by default, but now the entire browser feature is off by default as well. If you head over to chrome://settings/content/flash, you should see the with the little “Ask First” setting flipped off instead of on, according to 9to5Google.

Another somewhat covert tweak: Google Chrome developer Paul Irish says that websites will no longer be able to detect when your Chrome browser is in Incognito Mode. That one’s going to be pain for publishers like The New York Times which use those detection schemes to keep you from reading an infinite number of free stories — and steer you into paying for a subscription."

Google Chrome 76 arrives, makes it harder to use Flash and easier to dodge paywalls | The Verge