A GLITCH with Nvidia’s GPU drivers meant one users' habits in Chrome's stealthy Incognito Browsing mode were suddenly plastered over his screen.
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| A Canadian student discovered his Incognito viewing was not as private as he'd thought |
It turns out your viewing habits in Google Chrome's Incognito mode aren't as secretive as you might hope.
One University of Toronto student, Evan Andersen has blogged about his unfortunate experiences with the hugely-successful web browser.
Triggered by a glitch in Nvidia’s GPU drivers, the contents of one application were able to leak into another.
As a result, the content Mr Andersen had been watching on his computer in a Chrome Incognito window suddenly reared its ugly head some hours later.
He detailed in his blog: "When I launched Diablo III, I didn’t expect the pornography I had been looking at hours previously to be splashed on the screen.
"But that’s exactly what replaced the black loading screen. Like a scene from hollywood, the game temporarily froze as it launched, preventing any attempt to clear the screen.
"Even though this happened hours later, the contents of the incognito window were perfectly preserved."
Mr Andersen's experience is certainly embarrassing, but also highlights a bigger problem.
"This is a serious problem," the University student writes "It breaks the operating system’s user boundaries by allowing non-root users to spy on each other.
"Additionally, it doesn’t need to be specifically exploited to harm users – it can happen purely by accident.
"Anyone using a shared computer could be exposing anything displayed on their screen to other users of the computer."
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| Google Chrome is the world's most popular web browser |
Evan Andersen claims to have submitted the bug – which stops Nvidia’s GPU drivers from erasing the GPU memory before handing it to another application – some two years ago.
"Nvidia acknowledged the problem, but as of January 2016 it has not been fixed," he posted on his personal blog.
"Google marked the bug as won’t fix because google chrome incognito mode is apparently not designed to protect you against other users on the same computer (despite nearly everyone using it for that exact purpose)."
The news comes after DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg claimed that private browsing mode in your chosen internet browser is not as safe as users think.
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| Google is pretty up-front about how much it is able to track while you're in Incognito mode |
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| The Government wants to keep an itemised record of your web history on file |
According to the technology CEO, opening a private or incognito browser in your app of choice – either Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer – only ensures your computer does not remember your online activity.
Within private mode, the web browser will make sure your web searches and online history are not visible the next time you log in.
But that doesn't mean your activity is private. Your internet service provider – or ISP – is able to monitor every webpages and search made from your house.
This is something Google is very up-front about in its own Chrome browser.
“Going incognito doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your internet service provider or the websites that you visit.” the hugely popular web browser warns users.
Google is also able to track your activity and searches within its browser's Incognito Mode, especially if you sign-in to one of their apps while in a private mode.
If you haven’t disabled or paused your account's Google Web History – you are able to log-in and track your activity there, too.
Mozilla Firefox uses an almost-identical disclaimer on its private browsing mode.
But again, “while this computer won’t have a record of your browsing history, your employer or internet service provider can still track the pages you visit.”
Some websites are able to track your movements across the web – even when you are browsing in private mode – thanks to a technology dubbed Super Cookies.
Like regular internet cookies, the lightweight software sits on a website and fingerprints users who visit the page. Then, when the user returns at a later date – the website is able to see the entirety of the users' activity between the two visits.
The difference with so-called Super Cookies is that these have the ability to continue tracking users in private browsing mode, too.
Without precautions, advertisers and website owners are also able to keep tabs on your online activity – even in private mode.
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