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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

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That seems like a major security issue." Do you mean something you verified is happening or something you assumed is happening? You can go look at the site OP linked and find out what is happening and if it's a "major security issue". In this case, after user click/intervention, it renames the current history entry to "New Tab". This is not a security issue at all.

Well, it’s right there in the headline that the website wipes itself from history, so I don’t need any realignment of my ability to discern what I’ve read from what I’ve imagined. If all the site is doing is renaming itself New Tab then that sure isn’t newsworthy. Maybe a domestic violence reporting site should just name itself something innocuous in general without the quick escape? But nonetheless, a web site repla…

Not to start an argument but in lamence terms, renaming history to "New Tab" is as close to wiping history as a website can manage. Concealing, obfuscating, hiding might have been better words but the non technucal audience would not see an issue with the language. Nuance is important, though and i agree its slightly misleading

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

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

Android is a wasteland, not surprised

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

#44
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.

Stuff has it too.

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

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it’s right there in the headline that the website wipes itself from history, so I don’t need any realignment of my ability to discern what I’ve read from what I’ve imagined. If all the site is doing is renaming itself New Tab then that sure isn’t newsworthy. Maybe a domestic violence reporting site should just name itself something innocuous in general without the quick escape? But nonetheless, a web site repla…

Not to start an argument but in lamence terms, renaming history to "New Tab" is as close to wiping history as a website can manage. Concealing, obfuscating, hiding might have been better words but the non technucal audience would not see an issue with the language. Nuance is important, though and i agree its slightly misleading

I just tested it on both iPhone and Android and it does indeed remove itself from history and replaces with a link to a weather domain. That’s incredible that it is allowed and I can trivially think of a way to get someone to get to a fake banking site right now, or for that matter, fill the history with a series of visits to domestic violence sites or even worse!

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That seems like a major security issue." Do you mean something you verified is happening or something you assumed is happening? You can go look at the site OP linked and find out what is happening and if it's a "major security issue". In this case, after user click/intervention, it renames the current history entry to "New Tab". This is not a security issue at all.

Well, it’s right there in the headline that the website wipes itself from history, so I don’t need any realignment of my ability to discern what I’ve read from what I’ve imagined. If all the site is doing is renaming itself New Tab then that sure isn’t newsworthy. Maybe a domestic violence reporting site should just name itself something innocuous in general without the quick escape? But nonetheless, a web site repla…

[deleted]

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

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The former should forward to the latter.

NASA.gov for many years lacked a no-www version. IIRC it had something to do with the no-www being important internally at the time.

It’s been a very long time, but as I recall MS recommendations for AD domains and dns collisions changed multiple times. Used to be real problems if you had overlap.

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That seems like a major security issue." Do you mean something you verified is happening or something you assumed is happening? You can go look at the site OP linked and find out what is happening and if it's a "major security issue". In this case, after user click/intervention, it renames the current history entry to "New Tab". This is not a security issue at all.

Well, it’s right there in the headline that the website wipes itself from history, so I don’t need any realignment of my ability to discern what I’ve read from what I’ve imagined. If all the site is doing is renaming itself New Tab then that sure isn’t newsworthy. Maybe a domestic violence reporting site should just name itself something innocuous in general without the quick escape? But nonetheless, a web site repla…

[deleted]

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

#49
Not a bad idea, except that *WEB PAGES SHOULD HAVE NEITHER ANY ACCESS TO NOR ANY CONTROL OVER THE HISTORY, PERIOD, AND SOMEBODY NEEDS TO BEAT THE MORONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS "WEB PLATFORM" BULLSHIT SENSELESS*.

It's good that a police department has chosen to do this with the misfeature, but the fact that there are non-abusive applications is not an excuse.

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

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That seems like a major security issue." Do you mean something you verified is happening or something you assumed is happening? You can go look at the site OP linked and find out what is happening and if it's a "major security issue". In this case, after user click/intervention, it renames the current history entry to "New Tab". This is not a security issue at all.

Well, it’s right there in the headline that the website wipes itself from history, so I don’t need any realignment of my ability to discern what I’ve read from what I’ve imagined. If all the site is doing is renaming itself New Tab then that sure isn’t newsworthy. Maybe a domestic violence reporting site should just name itself something innocuous in general without the quick escape? But nonetheless, a web site repla…

[deleted]
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