I set up Chrome remote desktop for a family member today, and absolutely sync is enabled simply by signing in. Sure, it presents "Undo" after the fact, but on visiting the associated Google account, it had already copied everything. I have NFC where this article sourced "sync isn't automatic", but it clearly is. Zero UI indicator it's happening until the Undo button appears, by which time you've already been ripped off.

Nice to at least see they're making it opt-out, but the damage has already been done.

I tested this literally yesterday, created a new Chrome profile, logged in, and it didn't automatically turn on Sync.

I just tested again now, and took screenshots this time, and once again, it didn't automatically turn on Sync.

https://imgur.com/a/ceShKkl

I haven't used Chrome Remote Desktop recently. What exactly were you doing when sync turned on?

I've been using Gmail without signing into Chrome. Post-update, I am signed in, but sync is still off.

Even the linked article on HN was more about the implications of this change - without any notice. It removed one wall of protection that users who didn't want Sync had.

Many people _purposefully_ don't want to sign into Chrome. The change suddenly signed them in, without notice or confirmation. That's problematic.

This is a strawman -- many, many people were aware that this change did not enable sync for existing accounts, and were concerned regardless. Matthew Green does an excellent job articulating all of the reasons why this is a terrible change, and specifically notes that sync is not among them: https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2018/09/23/why-im-l...