Google is well aware of the consequences of closing this privacy loophole. The company, however, feels that user privacy must not be compromised, no matter how they choose to use the private mode. Their advice to publishers is to adapt to this change and respect users’ privacy:Sites that wish to deter meter circumvention have options such as reducing the number of free articles someone can view before logging in, requiring free registration to view any content, or hardening their paywalls. Other sites offer more generous meters as a way to develop affinity among potential subscribers, recognizing some people will always look for workarounds.  This Chrome update solves a great problem for users and their privacy, but consequently spawns another one for publishers.The truth is, there is no way to control whether or not your site visitors will bypass your paywall using private browsing mode, and this is a huge issue. It might be nice to imagine that people always do what’s right, but you can’t count on individuals’ ethical responsibility: there will always be those who bypass these measures. Now rules guarding the right of online anonymity are so strict, it’s hardly possible to know who’s breaching these paywalls.There is still a belief that all content should be free and accessible to users, despite the undeniable fact that money doesn’t grow on trees. People often fail to understand the difference between their right to be informed (access to news) and the opportunity to learn in depth about a certain subject (exclusive content such as essays, industry and research reports, or investigative journalism). If we agree that content is publishers’ only product, bypassing paywalls is basically theft. But because of the technical limitations and the specificity of the digital economy, it’s not likely that going around paywalls will ever become a true legal issue or that individuals who practice this will ever be held responsible. But doing so diminishes publishers on so many levels.