Slashdot Mirror
HTC Android Smartphone Stores Browsing Screenshots
Mad Hamster writes "Boy Genius Report points out that the HTC Droid Incredible, using the Sense UI, 'will periodically store screenshots of the contents of your web browser.' These shots are stored in such a way that they are not easily deleted. 'They remain when the current browser session is closed, they remain after you clear the browser history, and they remain after a full factory reset,' though there is a way to delete them manually."
Google is evil too!
Sounds like the equivalent of writing alert("here"); in javascript?
Don't think this is a big deal.
Wonder what those are used for?
Are they ever read? Sent anywhere? Are they permanent (always taking up space), or are they rotated out?
Is there any particular reason I should care?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
And then some app sends those pictures somewhere? Some apps (including Facebook's) have enough permissions to access those images and send them to a remote site.
HTC producing great software as ever.
I could understand all the UI hacks when they were doing WinMo phones as WinMo has an awful interface. But Android isn't as bad, why produce all these closed source crud on top of the OS?
Why not submit the code back to the Android tree and have it properly scrutinized by the developer community? you won't get stupidity like this then.
So, I haven't gotten mine yet (should by end of month), and I'm completely new to the Android scene. Couldn't you just chmod 000 the directory and be done with it?
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
The HTC Hero has a bookmark widget that uses screenshots of the websites as the buttons with a small label underneath(which is the websites title text I think). Since these images are called bookmark_thumb, I'm going to propose it has something to do with that...
This is how the iPhone does its cool animated transitions. People threw a stink when that was first discovered, but I can't remember if Apple resolved it. I know a factory reset does work on the iPhone though :-)
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
so Android tries to beat IPhone at every game? the IPhone used to be famous for the security issue of storing user screenshots on the device.
Everyone is up in arms about how these remain after a factory reset. Well the boring and unsensational truth is that the images are stored on the SD card. Your music, pictures, and videos are not deleted with a factory reset either.
These images are stored under the guise of being used as thumbnails for bookmarks but it seems unlikely as those could be taken as needed. This whole thing is pretty sketchy.
That said, if you don't want any more images delete the directory where they are stored and create an empty file of the same name (same name as the directory). No more screenshots!
or else!
I've noticed that my HTC Desire (also with Sense UI) does a similar thing, except it stores the thumbnails in my SD card. (The factory reset won't touch SD cards.) Maybe it saves to internal memory when there's no SD card, but I have not checked.
So it's probably more of a feature with a failsafe (i.e. write to internal memory if no SD is there) that wasn't implemented correctly, and you can still delete the files manually anyway. No big deal for me, but it's enough for me to know in case I do dispose/resell my phone in the future. (And if the phone gets stolen, the thief would have gotten hold of the SD card too anyway, so it's moot.)
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
I believe these 'screenshots' are used as thumbnails for the Live Bookmarks feature.
Do you have a droid? Have you used the browser? Have you seen the thumbnails in the history feature?
Seriously, taking thumbnails on the client would be the laziest and stupidest way to track web traffic I can think of.
Since when does clicking a file and pressing delete qualify as "not easily deleted"?
TFA says it's stored in the internal storage on the Droid, which is more difficult to delete. (Not by much, but still worth noting.)
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
yes, it does store the screenshots... for the purpose of having them show up in the Sense UI bookmark widget. on my Hero they are stored on the storage card, on the Incredible they are located on the on-board 6GB partition, http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-browser-bookmark-images-scare explains it in greater detail
Troll.
Has nothing to do with Google.
The images are not sent anyplace... they live on the SD card and factory wipes don't format your SD card.
It's all working as intended and the story might well be labeled a troll as well.
Besides, iPhones did this too.
I don't see the fanboys running for the hills.
How is this different from what Safari does? As I recently discovered when someone gave me their old PC, clearing the cache (which the person did) does not get rid of the page images Safari creates. There were hundreds of them: news stories, many Google searches, emails being read and written, adult content. I imagine Safari creates the images for the frequently used wall it puts up when you create a new window or tab. However the images were the full page (top to bottom, not just a 4:3 thumbnail) and there were low resolution JPG's and full resolution PNG's. What Safari needs the full page, full resolution images for I can only guess. This was nine-ish months ago, so it may be different now.
But, if it's so great, why do practically all of your savvy customers immediately take it home and wipe it all off?
Because "savvy customers" are few, and the not-so-savvy are many.
The people that build the products know you will wipe it after you get home. They don't care - why should they? They know you know how to do so.
The not-so-savvy people don't have much ability to customize so the phone makers try to do so in a way they think people will like.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
HTC feels that it is giving its customer added value by doing this. They are also setting themselves apart from the competition. And their Sense UI has been well received by the market, so why not?
You ask why they won't submit the code to Android, but then their differentiation would be gone.
And I don't think the goal should be for all phones to have identical UIs. Variety means choice. If people find that the Sense UI is better, that's one of the things that may compel them to buy a HTC phone. If they find it to be worse, HTC will lose business. Other companies can go for stock Android, or make their own custom UI. Thus, there is competition and choice. Not just one stock Android phone vs another stock Android phone.
Clever signature text goes here.
This is done by HTC's custom software, not by Android. Furthermore, there is no evidence that there is anything sinister going on. All this is, is that HTC made a silly choice when storing thumbnails for bookmarks.
Clever signature text goes here.
Except for a bit of wasted storage space, is this all that big of a deal? And its android, so someone can just write an app to clear them, i would assume.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Since in their hurried excitement TFA didn't report (or even ask) if this applied to other Android / Sense phones, I see them on my HTC Desire. Anyone using an Android phone without Sense (that is, any non-HTC made Android phone) willing to report? We're all assuming Sense, and it seems likely, but I've not seen any kind of confirmation.
The images aren't there to be sent back to HTC or whatever, they're just thumbnails for the fancypants UI. But there is an unintended security/privacy risk - that a malicious app could upload them, because apps can read anywhere on the SD card (if the app info says they can access the SD card, they can read all of it). OP is quite the dramatisation though, I read it to suggest shenanigans due to that folder being specifically and strangely excluded from the factory reset. That's not the case, the folder is on the SD card none of which is wiped on a factory reset - only the phone's storage is. If you're selling it with your phone (of any kind) you should know to also wipe the SD card.
Also, we don't know what the deletion policy is i.e. how much space they might eventually taking up, this is probably making a bit of an effort to imagine possibilities to complain about.
Another comment suggests "Can be fixed by deleting the folder .bookmark_thumb1 and create an empty txt file .bookmark_thumb1" (which, since being lackadaisical seems to be the in thing, I can't be bothered testing to confirm).
If your phone got stolen, the thief would get access to your google account (if you've ever set it up) or your browser history in the first place. Those are things that you wouldn't have been able to delete at the point of theft. Even if you lock the phone -- a good enough thief whose purpose is to steal your data would have researched enough to know how to get it. So that supposed "security hole" is moot -- it's just a tiny thing compared to the other data the thief has already gotten hold of.
My only real concern is if the issue is exploitable remotely.
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
Are why we need to be able to moderate the article itself.
Is there a running contest among /. editors to see who can approve the dumbest stories?
Edith Keeler Must Die
The Incredible phones are really part of a conspiracy to enslave us all and take our money little nibbles at a time through some fiendish plot of impulse buying cute and interesting little apps.
Take the Red Pill.
Agreed. I have an HTC Desire, it's just the thumbnails used for bookmarks and switching windows. Simply deleted them. Problem solved.
Only 144 Comments? Why isn't everyone losing their shit over thisOH I see, it's not about Apple. I stand corrected. Please move to the next Apple thread and begin your irrational bashing there. Thanks!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
This is the same on the HTC Desire, guessing it's all HTC Sense devices. It uses them for the bookmarks feature but I would have thought it could do that when you add a bookmark not randomly as you browse. As all shots are randomly named as well it makes me wonder if there is some hidden history file to link the names to pages... scary stuff.
There's going to be lots of these spurious reports. "Any means necessary" to stop iPhone and 'droid. If you can't find anything real make up something credible. If you can't make up something credible, lie. The WiMo folks are up against the wall and they're desperate. They're as friendly as a rat in a can. The sweat from their hopeless efforts is a fragrance to be cherished. Delight in their despair - it's the air of freedom.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
They are sending our mobile web histoires back to the motherland to better prepare her cyberwarriors for battle. Now they saw me type this on my HTC phone so if I go missing you all know they got me....