14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome continues to be the world’s number one desktop browser despite Microsoft’s super-aggressive push for Microsoft Edge on Windows, and statistics show that nearly 70 percent of the systems out there run the application developed by the search giant.
And since so many people rely on Chrome for their daily browsing, it’s pretty clear that every single bug in the browser can have a massive impact, with millions of users potentially affected.
This is the case of a very single keyboard button that could be pressed accidentally in Google Chrome to have all browsing data removed.
As you probably know already, Google Chrome allows users to clear browsing data, including things like history, cache, cookies, and everything else. Doing this is possible from the settings screen of the browser, which you can just open manually from the Chrome UI.
But at the same time, if you want to jump directly to the browsing clearing screen, you can just copy and paste the following code in the address bar:
chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
Doing this skips all the other steps and shows all the items that you can clear from the browser, so the only thing you need to do next is to select what you want to remove and then click the clear button.
But here’s the issue. The clear data button is automatically highlighted, so if you accidentally press the enter button twice when you try to load this screen using the aforementioned code, you could remove all the data without even knowing.
As TechDows spotted, Chromium engineers have discussed the issue in a recent thread, explaining that it’s super-easy to have all data removed accidentally, especially for beginners.
“Goodbye, data. Everything gets cleared immediately because the Clear Data button is focused by default. For expert users, the focused-by-default behavior is convenient, but at least in some cases we may not want it to be. Specifically, entry points geared toward new users will want to arrive at the dialog in a safer state, where explicit activation of the button is required,” the engineer said.
The first proposal to deal with the whole thing was to just make the cancel button the one that’s highlighted in this screen, essentially eliminating the damage that an accidental press of the enter key twice would have.
“Let's consider having the Cancel button focused by default instead. This way we can press tab once to arm the Clear Data button. It's a safety mechanism that protects all users while not causing too much burden for those who like quick keyboard-driven clearing,” the same engineer proposed.
Google, however, has found a different way to deal with the whole thing. The enter key is no longer enabled in the browsing data removal screen, which means that you need to use the mouse or touch input (if available) for the whole thing.
In other words, the clear button can no longer be triggered by pressing the enter button on the keyboard. So even if you accidentally press it twice when loading the dialog, nothing will happen with your data, as the second press is ignored from the very beginning.
The change has already been implemented in the Canary version of Google Chrome, and I tested it on Windows 10, and everything works exactly as described by Google. Of course, it should make its way to all users in the next Chrome stable update, no matter the platform – this means Windows users won’t be the only ones getting the updated behavior but those on Linux and Mac too.