Let users decide whether to load their home page on new identity.

In #41765 (closed) the custom home page was disabled due to a very low-security issue. However, this has created a number of complaints from users.

Thus this issue to implement a way to deal with both cases.

Options on the table are adding a setting/pref to restore old behavior, display a chrome banner with a string explaining why its not loaded, with a button to load it anyways; finally a combination of the two: add a setting/pref to restore the old behavior and display a chrome banner with a short explanation about why it is not loaded, as well as instructions for how to turn that behavior back on

marked this issue as related to #41765 (closed)

assigned to @ma1

added 13.5 stable Feature Linkability labels

added Backlog Desktop labels

What about displaying the default built-in home page with notification bar saying something along these lines:

"Custom home pages might correlate this new identity to the previous browsing session. Do you you trust ${domainName} in this regard? [YES] [NO]"

If user presses Yes, we register this home page's URL as the "trusted" custom home page, we load it and we don't ask anymore.

If users presses No or closes the notification, we will keep showing it on new identities.

@donuts, what do you think?

I think asking them once via an inforbar and treating the user's decision as persistent is a nice solution! Maybe it should reset if the user's homepage is changed?

I'd be in favor of updating the wording so that the question of trust is more implicit, e.g.:

ℹ️ Tor Browser blocked your homepage (${domainName}) from loading to prevent it from recognizing your previous session [Load anyway][X]

Getting the wording right is tricky though.

@donuts, what about the following?

ℹ️ Tor Browser blocked your homepage (${domainName}) from loading because it might recognize your previous session. [Load it anyway][X]

Assigning to you for sign-off, pass it me back for implementation

I'm happy with that, thanks @ma1!

added UX Team UX labels

changed the description

marked this issue as related to #42172 (closed)

marked #42297 (closed) as a duplicate of this issue

marked this issue as related to #42297 (closed)

marked #42199 (closed) as a duplicate of this issue

marked this issue as related to #42199 (closed)

added New Identity label

Just because a home page can be malicious in regards to privacy does not mean the users should be enforced to use about:tor as the one and only home page. Personally, I find it quite unfair to be shown "Donate donate donate..." for more than 2 months because of a "bug" (and yes, I have donated, so it is annoying). If the Tor project is going to mistreat loyal users and supporters like this, maybe we should start having second thoughts.

Default about:blank. Simple.

assigned to @donuts and unassigned @ma1

assigned to @ma1 and unassigned @donuts

removed UX Team label

mentioned in merge request !928 (merged)

marked this issue as related to tor-browser-build#41094 (closed)

marked this issue as related to tor-browser-build#41095 (closed)

changed title from Resolving custom home page disabling to Let users decide whether to load their home page on new identity.

closed

added Backport label

marked this issue as related to tor-browser-build#41099 (closed)

Reopening for backport per MR (@ma1 feel free to re-close if this is in error)

reopened

marked this issue as related to tor-browser-build#41100 (closed)

marked this issue as related to mullvad-browser#283 (closed)

closed

mentioned in issue #42172 (closed)

marked this issue as related to #42532 (closed)

mentioned in issue #42532 (closed)

mentioned in issue #43174 (closed)