Google – Firefox – Prefetch – Yuck!
Google posted some interesting news on their blog regarding a new “feature” to their search experience. The idea is, when you search and Google has determined that the first result is likely the one you’re looking for, they will pre-fetch that page behind the scenes for you. I’m sure they have good intentions and a highly accurate system for determining what is relevant for you but this sort of activity could place material on your computer without your knowledge and it could be something offensive, illegal or worse. At least, this is how I dissect the potential for this new feature.
What’s worse (IMO) is that prefetch is turned ON by default in Firefox. What on earth were the Firefox/Mozilla people thinking?!? It’s one thing if Google does it, if you tend to trust Google. But by having it ON by default you expose users to all sorts of malicious people who will use the same “prefetch” tag. They can prefetch just about anything, like a page with pronography on it that your IT manager decides to fire you over. Or perhaps some other illegal material which the police use against you if your computer is ever siezed. The whole idea seems bad to me.
Thankfully I tend to go to sites where this sort of playing around by a webmaster is unlikely to occur but it is not an impossible thought. For all of Firefox’s good qualities and attention to security detail this seems like an awful blunder, perhaps due to pressures from outside companies, like those who pay several Firefox developers. Who knows.
In the end there is a way to turn off the functionality in Firefox but I think they have the knob reversed. It should be OFF by default, just like other risky features that may exist within the browser.
To be fair, I might be missing something but so far, from what I’ve read about the feature, it scares me and I think it was a mistake. Slashdot users opine here.
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