https://ghosterysearch.com/ shows top sites in Private mode

[2br-2b]

No description provided.

[2br-2b]

Right now, putting https://ghosterysearch.com/ into the address bar redirects you to the browser's home page, where it shows your recently viewed websites and the search bar. This is fine, but the same behavior happens when you open https://ghosterysearch.com/ in a private tab. It will show all of your most recent sites.

There does not seem to be any malicious use for this right now. I it seems that that the url only redirects when entered into the address bar, not every time it is accessed.

It would probably be best to remove this, as it 1) may make it seem like private browsing still retains your history (when it doesn't), and 2) should probably redirect to the about:privatebrowsing page instead of the about:newtab page.

[chrmod]

https://ghosterysearch.com/ is a default new tab page in Ghostery browser. This is little bit different than in regular Firefox where the new tab page is an internal page of the browser.

Top sites are injected to the body of that page by the ghostery-search-extension (

ghostery-search-extension/src/background.js

Line 110 in aeeb646

if (action === 'getTopSites') {

) so it is perfectly safe as the browser decides where and when top sites are added.

BTW. this behavior is functionally not different from Firefox - that is, if Firefox when you enter private mode you can always open about:newtab which will show you top sites. Also same as in Firefox, in private mode the new tab shows about:privatebrowsing and not about:newtab.

Does this clarify the behavior you are experiencing?

[2br-2b]

Even if this is safe, it still may make it seem (to a random, non-tech-savvy user) that their history could be stored if they end up going to this url.

At least personally, I think it would be best if the top sites weren't shown on the new tab page on private tabs, as I think it would emphasize that the tabs are private and that they don't store your search data.

[chrmod]

@2br-2b valid point. I've moved the issue to the search extension repository where the change should be implemented.