Opera 12.16 - bug/unwanted feature - private browsing & download

[missingno]

missingno last edited by

I think I found a bug with downloads started from private tabs. If you close the private tab while the download is active, the download disappears. While it might be needed / a good idea that downloads started from within private tabs do not remain in the download history, they shouldn't be canceled only because the (last) private tab is closed.

Can anyone confirm?

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

But how else would you suggest preventing retention of any trace of private-tab downloads when the user has discontinued private browsing? Presumably, when the user closes his private tabs, he's done with "private" usage, and anything associated with that usage should go away as well. To do otherwise is to risk leaving a trail behind if the user forgets to go back and delete/empty/close something after he has moved away from the private tab(s)... and one of those trails might easily be an in-process download of a very long (or hung-up) download left running after the user moves away and forgets all about it. Privacy/security always ought to trump convenience.

[missingno]

missingno last edited by

Well, as a user, I obviously wanted to save this "private" data on my PC, so itself shouldn't be the privacy/security concern.

I was just thinking of a workaround which makes this really a bug.

First, I opened two private tabs, then I started a download from one of it and closed the tab. The download remained active! (Workaround: open a private tab, pin and/or stack it anywhere you don't mind.) Now I also closed the other private tab, to see if the download would be cancelled, but it still remained active.

When I stopped the download, it got automatically cleared from the history, as I would have expected it.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

Originally posted by missingno:

First, I opened two private tabs, then I started a download from one of it and closed the tab. The download remained active!

Open private windows instead of private tabs and see what happens.

[missingno]

missingno last edited by

Originally posted by Krake:

Open private windows instead of private tabs and see what happens.

Why would anyone do such a thing?
Regardless of the outcome of that test, the behavior as described above is still very inconsistent and inconvenient.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

Originally posted by missingno:

Why would anyone do such a thing?

In order to stop sharing data among private tabs.

[missingno]

missingno last edited by

Well, I could start a private browsing session in a temporary VM on an encrypted RAM drive ... but that is not the point. Point is, having one private tab, starting a download from within it and then closing the private tab cancels the download. If that is a privacy/security thing rather than a bug, the "sharing" between two independent private tabs would be a severe bug. More so as the "cleanup" is delayed even if all private tabs are closed.