Clear browser data: segfault and privacy
-
Trying to clear browser data in
vivaldi://settings/clearBrowserData
"Clear browsing data" results in segmentation fault (VB-36703). I've this problem since version 1.14 (stable and snapshot) on different systems (Arch Linux, Debian, Windows). So I suspect a general bug.Consequences of this problem:
The Chromium functions "Site Engagement" and "Media Engagement" store extensive and continuously updated usage data in the "Preferences" file. Very expressive user profiles are created, which can be viewed undervivaldi://site-engagement
andvivaldi://media-engagement
.The Vivaldi function "Clear Private Date" does not clear this data (VB-33709). The only way to clear this data is the Chromium function
vivaldi://settings/clearBrowserData
, which doesn't work anymore because of segmentation fault.This makes the usage of Vivaldi in (European)* companies highly problematic: personal data of employees are stored and processed: The company is able to receive information at any time about political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, sex life, etc. of employees who have no way to clear this data in their Vivaldi profiles.
Is VB-36703 a common bug and is a bugfix in progress?
*(General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes enforceable from 25 May 2018.)
-
@gwen-dragon
Thanks for your research!To delete the Vivaldi engagement data in Linux, I wrote a Bash script yesterday and uploaded it to Github today.