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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."
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!
Err, Sense UI is by HTC, not Google.
if you are one of a hundret selling android devices you need something to be distinguished with from the others. So they add on their on UI so customers see it as a better android handset as the ones from other manufacturers. If you submitt it back to android then all will eventually have it and you are just one in the android soup again....
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
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 guess if your customer's are complete idiots. Otherwise, you get the experience I had when I was at a T-Mobile store yesterday. I was looking at the new keyboarded version of the My3G and the interface goo they layered on top of Android was just atrocious. Garish bubblegummy looking colors and useless craptastic additions do not a superior interface make. It's like the shit pc makers do to Windows. Adding a bunch of useless docks and shit. Sure, technically, you are adding features and differentiating yourself. But, if it's so great, why do practically all of your savvy customers immediately take it home and wipe it all off? Same thing with SenseUi, motoblur, what ever else. It's all just useless unnecessary junk. I have a Droid with a stock albeit rooted Froyo interface. It's gorgeous, uncluttered, and works spectacularly.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
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"?
Apps only have permission to the data on their own section of the main memory by default. Even if they have access to your SD card then that doesn't give them permission to access other apps' private storage (unless they're from the same developer).
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
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
From what other people are saying, the directory in question is on the microSD card, which (idiotically) is required to be Microsoft's "FAT32" format...so permissions are not really settable. (You might be able to set the "read only" DOS flag, but I don't know if that'll have any effect.)
(Honestly, why not even UDF is an option instead of FAT32 I have no idea. It's not like the linux kernel - and every modern Windows and Mac OS - doesn't have the ability to support it.)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
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.
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.
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).
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.
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?