Firefox 'new tab' feature tweaked following privacy concerns
Mozilla has implemented changes to Firefox 14 that address concerns raised by privacy-conscious users over the "new tab" feature in Firefox 13. The Firefox developers have changed the browser's behaviour so that sensitive information should no longer leak via screenshots of web sites.
When opening a new tab, Firefox 13 shows users a grid of screenshots of their most visited pages. After this feature was introduced, several users complained to Mozilla and pointed out that the feature also takes screenshots of sensitive web sites such as login pages for online banking sites.
In Firefox 14 – released on Tuesday – Mozilla has implemented several tweaks to the "new tab" feature. Connections established over a secured HTTPS link are now excluded from being captured by the screenshot feature. Similarly, if the browser encounters a "Cache-Control: no-store" header, the page in question will also never be captured.
