Browser-laptop: Boston Globe detects Private Tabs

Created on 26 May 2017  路  7Comments  路  Source: brave/browser-laptop

  • Did you search for similar issues before submitting this one?
    Yes

  • Describe the issue you encountered:
    The Boston Globe detects Private tabs, and raises a paywall.

window.webkitRequestFileSystem(0, 1, function() {
  // User is assumed to be in a normal tab
}, function(n) {
 // User is assumed to be in a private/incognito tab
});

When the user is thought to be in a Private tab, the <body> is given overflow: hidden to prevent scrolling, and a div.gip__modal element is appended to the body.

bug featuradblock featurprivate-tabs fixed-with-brave-core wontfix
Source
picture jonathansampson
👍1

Most helpful comment

Can confirm this is fixed on both the latest Brave Desktop release and Brave for Android.

picture anisse on 19 Oct 2018
🎉2 ❤1

All 7 comments

Supposedly this is the Chrome bug, but I can't access it:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=93417
(Source: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=663727 )

anisse picture anisse on 26 May 2017

Related with https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/10269 ?

luixxiul picture luixxiul on 20 Aug 2017

@luixxiul I don't think this is related to #10269. That issue is more about fingerprinting, while this one is merely identifying whether the user is in a Private tab, and then blocking them from certain content.

jonathansampson picture jonathansampson on 20 Aug 2017

~cc: @lukemulks in case he may know what to look for when investigating~

bsclifton picture bsclifton on 22 Aug 2017

@bsclifton At the time, they were using the following to detect private tabs:

window.webkitRequestFileSystem(0, 1, function() {
  // User is assumed to be in a normal tab
}, function(n) {
  // User is assumed to be in a private/incognito tab
});
jonathansampson picture jonathansampson on 22 Aug 2017

@jonathansampson ah thanks- I totally missed that in the original post 馃槃

bsclifton picture bsclifton on 23 Aug 2017

Can confirm this is fixed on both the latest Brave Desktop release and Brave for Android.

anisse picture anisse on 19 Oct 2018
🎉2 ❤1
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