'Secret agents' warning removed from Chrome incognito tab

Terrible change, IMO.<p>Even if the older expanded list skewed a bit into jokey territory in the wording (which I think is fine, even for -- maybe especially for, the secret agent bit because jokes are a fantastic way to highlight injustices) it gave Joe Random user a much better idea of what things incognito won&#x27;t protect him from than the new text does.<p>The dividing line of protection incognito gives you may seem completely obvious to anyone reading HackerNews, but I assure you that it is non-obvious to my non-tech friends and family who tell me their new computer has &quot;2 terabytes of memory&quot;.

This seems to happen a lot after a certain half life - all of the little quirky personality-showing additions get stripped over time in projects like this. Even happens in code comments too.<p>Things slip through the cracks and go to production, and then everyone complains and then things with too much color get pulled.

People had apparently been complaining for awhile (search for the bug thread on this); for instance: <a href="http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.chromium.bugs/181502" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;permalink.gmane.org&#x2F;gmane.comp.web.chromium.bugs&#x2F;1815...</a>

Interesting that this change from early December is being discussed now. A more recent commit (from @__apf__) in mid-December changes the text to, as the author puts it, &quot;increase emphasis on what incognito <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> provide&quot;.<p><a href="https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome?view=revision&amp;revision=240758" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;src.chromium.org&#x2F;viewvc&#x2F;chrome?view=revision&amp;revisio...</a>

Maybe the joke just isn&#x27;t funny any more.

Probably because government surveillance is completely expected now.

&quot;Cookies are delicious delicacies&quot;<p><a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213186" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bugzilla.mozilla.org&#x2F;show_bug.cgi?id=213186</a>

I for one welcome this change, on stylistic grounds. Browsers are used by many people around the world from all ages, all of what they tell to their users must be carefully edited to avoid misunderstandings and anything not necessary needs to be removed. A joke or half joke like that was prone to misunderstandings and unnecessary.

I bet the folks over at <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!forum/chromium-dev" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.google.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;chromium.org&#x2F;forum&#x2F;#!forum&#x2F;chrom...</a> must get a good chuckle out the hysteria swarming over this

If only this was a canary clause.

Out of sight, out of mind

it also won&#x27;t protect you from bullying from people named incognito

Here, have some Streisand effect, Google!