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."
I'll venture a guess: I have noticed on my HTC Incredible that the built-in browser displays a small graphical thumbnail of my bookmarked sites, presumably as a user interface enhancement. When scrolling through my bookmarks, I can see a picture of what the page looked like the last time I visited it. My guess is that these pictures are stored and used to generate those thumbnails.
If that is truly the usage, I have no issues whatsoever with the practice. If those pictures are leaving my phone, however, then this is really unacceptable.
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
Of course it's not erased by a factory reset; the images are saved on the external memory card (microsd)
I'd be really concerned if it WERE erased
Since when does clicking a file and pressing delete qualify as "not easily deleted"?
It doesn't bother me that you're wrong (at least according to the article), honest mistake and all, but it does bother me that you're modded up for it.
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. The JPEG files are saved to a folder named .bookmark_thumb1 which is located within the emmc folder of the phones internal storage (so you would expect a full factory reset to delete them).
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
The article is 100% incorrect. I have the Incredible and they're stored on the external SD card. The article is a load of FUD from Boy Genius.
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.
Why accept the obvious answer when you can assume the paranoid answer?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
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.
Nope, just a case of someone not turning off the Browser Favorites widget.
All I can say is "duh". Turn it off and you're fine. It's called a "cache file" so it can display that big static thumbnail image in the widget if you choose to use it.
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
The article is misleading.. they're on internal storage if you don't have an sd card.
They're also *only* created for bookmarks.. if you don't make it a bookmark, no thumbnail gets created.
That is because the cache file is stored on your SD card and not in the phone's internal flash memory. A factory reset does not format your SD card. The BGR article was not thoroughly researched.
Then you'd be out $100. I'm even posting from the phone... now there's now way I could collect nor is there any evidence I could give you that you'd take. The screen cap that BGR is using is even from the external SD. Drive h: is the default letter for external SD. I'm not the only one saying this.
Sorry, but I don't want a reset clearing any user data on persistent storage.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
It’s not the SD card, and people stating otherwise are lying. That is part of my point.
I really wish you and that commodore64 kid would leave the Slashdot I know and love with your paranoid delusional trolling.
./sdcard/.footprints/thumbnails/1272099190529.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/mcd0bb890.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/scd0bb890.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/m46bb1b3c.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/s46bb1b3c.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/mdabb3bb3.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/sdabb3bb3.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/m66c70c76.jpg ./sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1/s66c70c76.jpg
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb shell
# find . -name *.jpg | grep -v -e customize -e contacts -e wallpaper -e DCIM | more
[snipped for brevity, more of the same follows]
the /emmc/ folder that's present on some Android devices (including the incredible) is a mount point for the internal eMMC storage. it's a bus for a type of embedded flash memory (like SDHC for removable cards).
when there's no SD card, the phone might choose to use this embedded storage (or might choose to use it for other reasons).. it's not really the same as the "internal storage" (which is wiped in a factory reset).
this is a simple oversight on the part of HTC and/or the Android team - not making it more obvious, on devices that have eMMC (very few models of which exist yet), that this is another persistent area of storage that needs to be treated like the SD card when it comes to privacy concerns.
there is no conspiracy here, just innocent mistakes in a massive contribution-driven software project.