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."

Re:OMG!!1one

[Jon.Laslow]

Err, Sense UI is by HTC, not Google.

Re:Huh.

[Jahava]

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.

Just like the iPhone then?

[Kostya]

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 :-)

The boring truth...

[nilbog]

Everyone is up in arms about how these remain after a factory reset. Well the boring and unsensational truth is that the images are stored on the SD card. Your music, pictures, and videos are not deleted with a factory reset either.

These images are stored under the guise of being used as thumbnails for bookmarks but it seems unlikely as those could be taken as needed. This whole thing is pretty sketchy.

That said, if you don't want any more images delete the directory where they are stored and create an empty file of the same name (same name as the directory). No more screenshots!

Re:Huh.

[ChronoReverse]

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

Re:And then some app sends them somewhere?

[MikeBabcock]

Apps only have permission to the data on their own section of the main memory by default. Even if they have access to your SD card then that doesn't give them permission to access other apps' private storage (unless they're from the same developer).

Re:Huh.

[MozeeToby]

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, they are stored... here's why

[miguelfp1]

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 [androidcentral.com] explains it in greater detail

Re:Huh.

[caladine]

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.

Re:Workarounds?

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

"Couldn't you just chmod 000 the directory and be done with it?"

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.)

Re:Huh.

[Aranykai]

Ironically I recall this reaction happening when the iPhone had the same feature awhile back. It's just the nature of visual bookmarks.

Next up, Google Chrome and Opera keep thumbnail screenshots of the websites you visit!

Just like Safari

[schlameel]

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.

Re:Huh.

[hax4bux]

TFA is wrong. I have a Hero which exhibits the same behavior (i.e. writes thumbnails to the micro SD)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Sounds like a debug feature

[Gordonjcp]

A cache file that persists even after factory reset?

Why would a factory reset clear user data stored on removable media?

Re:Huh.

[caladine]

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.

Re:Huh.

[caladine]

Just tried this. Doesn't store on internal memory, the thumbnail is just a picture of an SD card with a "?" next to it, instead of a thumbnail.

Re:Sounds like a debug feature

[ArcherB]

It's stored on the card in the phone, not the phone's internal memory. The SD card is not erased during a factory reset.

(This was typed on my EVO.)

Re:Huh.

[ElKry]

They are not lying.

The DROID Incredible stores it on internal storage, while the rest of the Sense UI devices store it on the SD card. For reference, http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/18/htc-confirms-droid-incredible-browser-issue-plans-fix/ [boygeniusreport.com]

HTC Desire too

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the same on the HTC Desire, guessing it's all HTC Sense devices. It uses them for the bookmarks feature but I would have thought it could do that when you add a bookmark not randomly as you browse. As all shots are randomly named as well it makes me wonder if there is some hidden history file to link the names to pages... scary stuff.