Google’s latest version of Chrome dropped overnight. Version 76 does away with a well known exploit that enabled publishers to detect when users were visiting their site in Incognito mode.
Previously Incognito mode could be detected by checking if Chrome’s FileSystem API was disabled. Google have now disabled the ability to check the status of the API at all meaning publishers can no longer bounce or wall-off Incognito users.
The change significantly hinders publishers offering a limited amount of “free” articles before putting them behind a paywall. Without the ability to bounce incognito users as well as the inability to read or set cookies means their site is effectively open and will require other methods to stop users from having unlimited access.