Why QQ secretly reads browser records? Officials have fixed it

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Recently, some netizens discovered that Tencent's QQ and other instant messaging software have the phenomenon of reading the corresponding directory of browser records in the background. What is going on?

QQ suspected of secretly reading browser records

Recently, a hot post on the famous developer forum V2EX (click here to view) suddenly triggered a heated discussion among netizens. According to the poster "mengyx", through the interception log of Huorong Security Software, it was found that QQ would access the key directory storing the Edge browser history records. The specific behavior is that QQ will read the Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\History directory 10 minutes after logging in.

Another netizen "qwqdanchun" further analyzed this phenomenon on the Kanxue forum (click here to view). According to "qwqdanchun's" analysis, this phenomenon exists not only in QQ, but also in TIM. They scan not only Edge's browsing history directory, but also the browsing history of all browsers based on the Chromium engine. Specifically, they scan all folders under Appdata\Local\, and then add \User Data\Default\History to read data. "\User Data\Default\History" is the default history storage location for Chromium kernel browsers. In this way, the browsers that will be affected include Chrome, Cheetah, 360 Speed ​​and other common browsers.

In addition, netizen "raion" discovered that QQ also reads IE's history, which means that QQ's behavior can affect most browsers except Firefox and Safari.

According to the analysis of netizens "raion", "swchzq" and "Terang", after QQ reads the URLs in the browser history, it will upload the matching URLs to various groups (mainly e-commerce, stocks and other keywords).

It is reported that versions after QQ Windows 9.0.4 (released on 2018/06/15) and versions after TIM Windows 3.1.0 (released on 2020/07/29) will have such behavior.

The latest developments show that QQ 9.4.2 (released on 2021/01/17 20:32) and TIM 3.3.0 (released on 2021/01/17 21:39) have removed the corresponding code and suspended the infringement.

How can I prevent QQ from reading browser records?

In fact, it is not news that some software secretly scans and uploads user data. For example, we have previously tested and found that Thunder U-Share Edition, Thunder 9, and Thunder 7 all have the behavior of secretly scanning non-user download directories and automatically uploading data. How to prevent these unpleasant behaviors of software?

Use the appropriate version of software . For example, the official has removed the corresponding code in the new version of QQ, and the old version of Thunder (such as the "Extreme Edition") or the newer version (Thunder X, Thunder 11) will not upload files that are not in the download directory.

· Use security software to intercept . For example, in the case in this article, the reason why netizens found that QQ read the browser records was because QQ triggered the protection rules of Huorong security software. Security software with HIPS functions such as Huorong can be set to prevent the software process from reading a certain directory. Of course, to implement such a feature, some hands-on skills may be required in some security software, and I will introduce it to you in detail later.

Summarize

In recent years, the rogue behavior of Android mobile apps has prompted regulatory authorities to vigorously rectify the domestic mobile application ecosystem, but many people may have inadvertently forgotten that Windows is also a disaster area for rogue software. I hope that the software ecosystem of the PC platform can be more standardized and provide users with a more comfortable usage environment.