Chrome Crisis: Indexes Bank Accounts?

Author Gordon Kelly
Published 4th Sep 2008
Chrome Crisis: Indexes Bank Accounts?
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Every silver lining has a cloud...?

Just one day after Google Chrome - the company's first web browser - stunned us all by allegedly taking 1% of the browser market in 48 hours it seems things might not be so rosy as tgdaily is reporting it will index anything that moves, including your bank accounts!


To quote the site:

"To see all of this in action, just open up Chrome and log in to your favorite (sic) financial website. Like most important sites, it should be protected with HTTPS/SSL encryption and that should be evident in the address bar of the browser. Do the stuff you would normally do like look at your balances and gawk at your latest transactions and then open up a new tab in Chrome by clicking the “+” symbol. In the right-hand history search box, enter a few keywords and see what they get you. Surprised? I bet you are. No luck? Then try something simple like oh Visa, Mastercard, balance and account. Also try out the names and abbreviations of months like September, Sept and Sep."

The problem is the browser is indexing https (secure http) sites automatically, a really clumsy and potentially dangerous oversight and according to the TG everything from your transaction history, to balance details and even bank account numbers can pop up for anyone who happens to be using your computer. In fact, as TG mentions - depending on how much you trust Google - it could even be gathered in by the Mountain View company itself.

Of course clearing the Chrome cache or even using porn 'incognito mode' will eliminate this problem entirely, but who will know they have to do this in the first place? It's a big slip-up and one which shouldn't have made it out to a public browser, good, bad, beta or not.

Looks like the honeymoon period is already over Google. We have been impressed, but the next version is already urgent...

Link:
via tgdaily

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Latest 4 of 12 Comments

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Comment Rsaeire said on 5th September 2008

@Gordon - I find it odd that people are confused and think the site is a US site. The pricing is nearly always in sterling (£) in the news and review sections and even the ads on t... more

Comment Xiphias said on 5th September 2008

Anyone who uses the just released first beta of a new browser to do their banking is asking for trouble in the first place.

Comment redfield said on 5th September 2008

there is one good thing about Chrome...

it's nice and quick to uninstall

the coverage about market share is ridiculous - just because a lot of pe... more

Comment ChaosDefinesOrder said on 6th September 2008

"Anyone who uses the just released first beta of a new browser to do their banking is asking for trouble in the first place."

I'll second that notion!

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