CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-chrome-extension
Owen Far
Owen Far

Reputation: 191

Chrome extension tabs permissions shows "Read your browsing history"

I am creating an extension that can save all current tabs when a user clicks on a "save this session" button. A function call triggers this code:

// Go through all tabs in current window
chrome.tabs.query({ currentWindow: true }, function (tabs) {

    // Iterate through each tab
    tabs.forEach(function (tab) {

        // Gets tab.url, tab.title, tab.favIconURL
    });
});

I don't call this function anywhere else and it is ONLY triggered by a user gesture. There are similar questions on SO, but they don't clearly explain why requesting tabs permissions shows the warning "Read your browsing history", when on their documentation they clearly state that it should show "Access your tabs and browsing activity" which makes much more sense.

If I had to install an extension that is suppose to save my tabs, but instead asks to read my browsing history, I wouldn't trust it at all. How am I suppose to gain users' trust? Is there another way around this?

Even if I remove all chrome.tabs code or use chrome.windows instead, I still get this warning. Could it be that they have a bug and it is showing the wrong warning message?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 6271

Answers (1)

woxxom
woxxom

Reputation: 73766

Quoting https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/permission_warnings which is the correct URL:

"tabs": Read your browsing history

Technically this permission allows observing the history via chrome.tabs.onUpdated, but not read the previously existing history, so the phrasing is not entirely correct, strictly speaking.

As for user gesture + activeTab it only grants access to the tab where the gesture occurred, not to all tabs.

Upvotes: 8

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