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Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

vpd.ca

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Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#21
post #5

Raises the question of whether browsers should have a [Replace Page, Erase Domain from History] button and hotkey. This is a good idea that deserves to be across all Police, Help, Domestic Violence, 911, Suicide Hotline, etc sites across all countries.

Firefox already has "forget this site", which removes all traces of you ever visiting the site, but it's only available from the history modal. Been there for probably decades, yet another thing mostly known to/used by "advanced" users.

What's weird is with Firefox for Android it's so difficult erasing a site from being remembered. Once visited, in my experience, even after deleting the history entry and last closed tabs item it still auto completes the domain in the addressbar (when it didn't before) and the only workaround is a full history wipe (since the Android version offers no granular timeframe like the desktop version).

So if accidentally clicking some link from some other app that auto opens the default browser it's a PITA to get FF for Android to forget about it.

Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#22
post #7

In New Zealand we have a Shielded Site popup at the bottom of all government websites, and many popular privately owned websites too. E.g. go to govt.nz and scroll to the bottom. There's a little icon of a computer that opens a popup element inside the page. It gives information for victims of domestic violence and abuse.

https://govt.nz isn't a thing, but https://www.govt.nz is.

The former should forward to the latter.

Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#23

But when the Vancouver PD are beating you up, you wont have time to load the page to locate the quick escape button.

That's funny, right before this I was just reading about how some idiot I knew from back in the day beat the shit out of some stranger on the SkyTrain for his headphones. Maybe it's time to realize how fucked Vancouver is and that the cops aren't the problem

Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#24

its too bad they do very little fighting actual crime same with montreal pd probably two least effective and disliked departments in all of canada

Any large city's PD is going to be controversial. From the experience of people close to me who work with police, the VPD are better run and have more programs like Car 33 than the RCMP in neighbouring jurisdictions. Many of the perceived issues come from (I'll say it) corrupt judges who let out career petty criminals on a bail-less "promise to appear." Some officers report arresting the same person twice in one shif…

VPD has become notably more controversial after Jim Chu stepped down, before that it was notable how professional they were for a North American police department

Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#28

Brilliant feature, well done Vancouver PD. A very serious boss mode. Lotus 1-2-3 wouldn't look quite right here but weather.ca is plausible.

This feature has a long and storied history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key

Re: Vancouver PD website features Quick Escape button that wipes itself from history

#30
post #10

It only replaces the current page, and VPD is not a single-page app. So if you've been clicking around to find something, the previous pages will still be in your history. If you need to hide your browsing history from an abusive partner, it would be more secure to use incognito mode and hit Alt+F4 when you need to escape. Unfortunately, Chrome renders incognito windows in dark mode by default. If you're normally on…

Apparently Firefox has a config option to disable this:

browser.theme.dark-private-windows. Set to false, and you're set.

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