Chrome's latest update, which added support for iOS 7, also included a significant flaw that was discovered by design firm Parallax (via TechCrunch). When using the search or address bar in an Incognito window within the app, browsing history will be saved and shared with the standard Google.com browser.
Google’s Incognito mode is designed to keep searches for sensitive information private, but as detailed in the video, searches will be displayed when the standard Google.com browser is accessed. The flaw can be replicated with the following steps:
- Open an Incognito window
- Enter a search term in the address bar and hit enter
- Open a non-Incognito window
- Navigate to Google.com
- Tap the search box on the page to see Incognito searches
TechCrunch contacted Google and learned that there is no fix for the issue, as it is an "unfortunate but unavoidable loophole that comes with building a browser for iOS. The company cites its Incognito support note, which does address the issue.
On Chrome for iOS, due to platform limitation regular and incognito* tabs share HTML5 local storage, which is typically used by sites to store files on your device (client-side caching) or to provide offline functionality. This means the same sites can always access their data in this storage in both regular and incognito* tabs. Incognito* tabs will still keep browsing history and cookies separate from regular tabs, which are cleared once those tabs are closed.
Apple’s default Safari browser does not appear to have the same issue, accurately hiding searches made in Private mode.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I wouldn't be so quick to say "Safari is able to do it." Simply due to the fact Apple doesn't have to follow its own submission process, and their apps can have certain privileges that third-parties cannot.
Indeed, this would seem to be exactly the case, since Apple doesn't let third-party apps restrict HTML5 local storage, which is what Google and other sites use for this search history.
It's also been like this since at least iOS 6, so it's weird that it's suddenly getting all this coverage.
Someone is dropping the ball.TechCrunch contacted Google and learned that there is no fix for the issue, as it is an "unfortunate but unavoidable loophole that comes with building a browser for iOS. The company cites its Incognito support note (https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?hl=en), which does address the issue. Apple's default Safari browser does not appear to have the same issue, accurately hiding searches made in Private mode.
Sure, it's true that local storage is shared between incognito and normal modes, but it's also trivial to prefix all your storage keys with "incognito-" while reading/writing in incognito mode, and ensuring that normal mode never reads/writes storage keys prefixed with "incognito-".
Would your sensitive data still be on your system? Yeah, chrome would have to periodically clear all "incognito-" prefixed keys' values to resolve that. But at least these sensitive values would never be displayed via the browser. Only a data miner with access to your file system could get at them.
This kind of fix could be performed by a novice engineer. It is an embarrassing bug, not Apple's fault. Not unavoidable.