Flock makes searching quite easy with the live search funtionality integrated into the browser. However, I also noticed that it has a pretty nasty habit of logging all that information to the system log files. The Privacy settings have no effect on this logging.
In Mac OS X, Flock logs all the strings that were entered in the live search box to /var/log/system.log. Granted that system log is only readable by the Superuser (root).
sh-3.2# ls -l /var/log/system.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 108796 Dec 8 14:25 /var/log/system.log
sh-3.2#
To see the most recent search that was conducted using Flock, all one has to do is the following:
sh-3.2:> sudo grep “Out data:” /var/log/system.log
Password:
Dec 8 14:21:32 foobar [0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
Dec 8 14:21:32 foobar[0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
Dec 8 14:21:32 foobar [0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
Dec 8 14:21:32 foobar [0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
Dec 8 14:21:58 foobar [0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
Dec 8 14:21:58 foobar [0x0-0xc20c2].com.flock.Flock[25126]: *** Search: getSubmission: Out data: “+Flock+%22out+data%3A%22″
What is shows here is that someone has entered “Flock out data” in the search box. (Clearly, he don’t got no life).
How to stop it
- In the browser URL window, type about:config and hit “Enter”.
- Filter for browser.search.log and set the value to False (double clicking on value will toggle it)
- Filter for browser.search.update.log and set the value to False
IMHO — this should be set to default.
[...] Check This Out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt: Flock makes searching quite easy with the live search funtionality integrated into the browser. However, I also noticed that it has a pretty nasty habit of logging all that information to the system log files. The Privacy settings have … [...]