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Safari's Private Browsing Mode Saves URLs In an Easily Accessible File

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Well...this is awkward if you use your Private browsing modes for more private means. Looks like those URLs are still getting stored in a file on your computer, so unless you're packing a strong password + encryption on the drive, someone can take a peek at what you've been up to anyways. 

 

This is disappointing. Chrome wastes battery life and Safari is violating my happy time privacy, what browser is a man to use for such purposes? 

 

If you use Safari on your Mac for your private browsing needs, you might want to stop. MacIssues points out that all those URLs you visit in private mode are still saved in a database file that anyone with your computer can look at. 

 

Safari saves all the favicon images and URLs you visit in the ~/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db file. You can open that file with any SQLite browser. Once you do, you'll find a full list of all the URLs you've ever visited in Safari, private mode or otherwise, in the PageURL table.

 

Obviously it takes a bit of work to get to this file so nobody's going to see it by accident, but if you're worried about anyone snooping in on your personal computer, it's probably best not to use Safari for your private browsing. For now, you can simply delete the Webpageicon.db file to get rid of that entire history.

 

 

Source 1: http://lifehacker.com/safaris-private-browsing-mode-saves-urls-in-an-easily-a-1691944343?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Source 2: http://www.macissues.com/2015/03/17/safari-bug-saves-web-page-urls-in-private-mode/

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Well that SUCKS

Desktop - Corsair 300r i7 4770k H100i MSI 780ti 16GB Vengeance Pro 2400mhz Crucial MX100 512gb Samsung Evo 250gb 2 TB WD Green, AOC Q2770PQU 1440p 27" monitor Laptop Clevo W110er - 11.6" 768p, i5 3230m, 650m GT 2gb, OCZ vertex 4 256gb,  4gb ram, Server: Fractal Define Mini, MSI Z78-G43, Intel G3220, 8GB Corsair Vengeance, 4x 3tb WD Reds in Raid 10, Phone Oppo Reno 10x 256gb , Camera Sony A7iii

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Why would this even be a thing? Isn't the point of private browsing or incognito that it saves no user data? 

 

Yaaaaaayy apple!

Laptop - Lenovo Y50   Keyboard - Corsair K95 RGB Cherry MX Brown   Mouse - Logitech G502 Proteus Core   Mousepad - Razer Firefly


 


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GGWP Apple. I'm glad I use Chrome.

"an obvious supporter of privacy"

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As if there was browser that don't spy on you anyways. In 2015 privacy is something you can only accomplish in your bathroom but not on the internet.

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does any one use safari anymore ?

If your grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it You are automatically drafted into the skeleton war.

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does any one use safari anymore ?

 

Its a sad sack of shit on Windows (like all Apple software on Windows) but on OS X its one of the fastest and most battery friendly browsers on the market. 

 

I switched back to it specifically because Chrome was doing that stupid CPU usage thing and chewing out at least half my battery life for no good reason. Safari is so efficient its stupid that its even possible. The day Chrome gets to that level, I'd probably switch back. I'm not particularly loyal to browsers. 

 

ITs sometimes a pain in the ass to switch over but to get nearly 4 hours of battery life back? Totally worth it. 

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does any one use safari anymore ?

Yes, but I hope to move to Firefox soon (on my Mac anyways, I use Firefox on my Linux USB and on my gaming rig), mostly because it doesn' t seem to crash as much as Safari

"My game vs my brains, who gets more fatal errors?" ~ Camper125Lv, GMC Jam #15

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Its a sad sack of shit on Windows (like all Apple software on Windows) but on OS X its one of the fastest and most battery friendly browsers on the market.

I switched back to it specifically because Chrome was doing that stupid CPU usage thing and chewing out at least half my battery life for no good reason. Safari is so efficient its stupid that its even possible. The day Chrome gets to that level, I'd probably switch back. I'm not particularly loyal to browsers.

ITs sometimes a pain in the ass to switch over but to get nearly 4 hours of battery life back? Totally worth it.

It's not even avalible on Windows anymore lol, but I kept using it until it got too outdated

"My game vs my brains, who gets more fatal errors?" ~ Camper125Lv, GMC Jam #15

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You're surprised by something not respecting your privacy in 2015? were you just unfrozen or something?

"The of and to a in is I that it for you was with on as have but be they"

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As if there was browser that don't spy on you anyways. In 2015 privacy is something you can only accomplish in your bathroom but not on the internet.

Dont worry, soon we will have to log in on bathroom/toilet and it will be saving our dumping history and how long you spent in there.

And if it will be made by Safari then you better dont expect private mode.. I shit you not!

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I use private browsing 24/7 so I don't have targeted Ads, and so on. 

But for my private browsing, I use firefox. I just trust open source more for some reason, no that it would be the end of the world if my history was saved. 

muh specs 

Gaming and HTPC (reparations)- ASUS 1080, MSI X99A SLI Plus, 5820k- 4.5GHz @ 1.25v, asetek based 360mm AIO, RM 1000x, 16GB memory, 750D with front USB 2.0 replaced with 3.0  ports, 2 250GB 850 EVOs in Raid 0 (why not, only has games on it), some hard drives

Screens- Acer preditor XB241H (1080p, 144Hz Gsync), LG 1080p ultrawide, (all mounted) directly wired to TV in other room

Stuff- k70 with reds, steel series rival, g13, full desk covering mouse mat

All parts black

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Stuff- Epicgear defiant (solderless swappable switches), g600, moutned mic and other stuff. 

Laptop docking area- 2 1440p korean monitors mounted, one AHVA matte, one samsung PLS gloss (very annoying, yes). Trashy Razer blackwidow chroma...I mean like the J key doesn't click anymore. I got a model M i use on it to, but its time for a new keyboard. Some edgy Utechsmart mouse similar to g600. Hooked to laptop dock for both of my dell precision laptops. (not only docking area)

Shelf- i7-2600 non-k (has vt-d), 380t, some ASUS sandy itx board, intel quad nic. Currently hosts shared files, setting up as pfsense box in VM. Also acts as spare gaming PC with a 580 or whatever someone brings. Hooked into laptop dock area via usb switch

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GGWP Apple. I'm glad I use Chrome.

The irony, oh, it's killing me.

Someone told Luke and Linus at CES 2017 to "Unban the legend known as Jerakl" and that's about all I've got going for me. (It didn't work)

 

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Where is my brother's laptop

 

  • Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core | GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD3P | Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 | EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Superclocked ACX | Corsair Carbide Series 200R -- WD Caviar Blue 1TB, Sandisk SSD 128GB | Corsair CX 750W | AOC e2250Swdn Black 22" | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) |

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Its a sad sack of shit on Windows (like all Apple software on Windows) but on OS X its one of the fastest and most battery friendly browsers on the market. 

 

I switched back to it specifically because Chrome was doing that stupid CPU usage thing and chewing out at least half my battery life for no good reason. Safari is so efficient its stupid that its even possible. The day Chrome gets to that level, I'd probably switch back. I'm not particularly loyal to browsers. 

 

ITs sometimes a pain in the ass to switch over but to get nearly 4 hours of battery life back? Totally worth it. 

 

its because its built into OSX.

 

also, private browsing was never truly private due to the fact that (if you really wanted to) you could log into your router and look through the outgoing webpage requests, although that would take some time...

 

Edit: Holy crap I have almost 6000 sites visited on Private Browsing. I need to chill xD

CPU: Intel i5-2400 Mobo: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z RAM: 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1333MHz GPU: Sapphire R9 280x Tri-X Case Corsair Obsidian Series 350D PSU: EVGA 500w 80+ Certified

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