What is DownTheMall?
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Extension summary
In the real world we take privacy for granted in everything we do from going down to the mall to go shopping to going to the cinema to watch a movie. There isn't any reason why we can't expect the same privacy protections in the online world too.
When you visit shopping websites or watch videos online, we should expect the same privacy protections too. You shouldn't have to explain why you are viewing certain websites or videos to anybody including to law enforcement, lawyers, teachers or even to your spouse or significant other. This is protected by the Fifth Amendment.
If somebody asks you what you bought at Sears last Saturday between 3 and 4pm, you shouldn't have to answer. Likewise if somebody asks you what websites you were viewing before they got home, you shouldn't have to answer too.
If you find yourself in a situation where you had to clear the last 2 hours of your browser history or you had to surf the Internet using Incognito mode, you should not be compelled to be a witness against yourself without due process of law.
This extension is designed to give you plausible deniability in those situations.
This extension can clear your browser history under false pretenses and can manufacture false reasons why you were browsing the web in incognito mode.
With this extension, to clear the last 2 hours of your browser history, simply rearrange the tabs in your browser. To do this, simple drag any tab to the left or right. When you rearrange the tabs, the extension will pop up a misleading notification popup about an "Unexpected situation detected". If you click on that notification popup, the extension will automatically clear the last 2 hours of your browser history. With this knowledge, simple demonstrate to your spouse that you were merely "rearranging the tabs to look nicer" and didn't know that that action would clear your browser history. This is plausible deniability.
If you were using incognito mode to surf the web, that is harder to explain, but not impossible. Go into the settings page for this extension and turn on "Open incognito window when appropriate". The next time you close and reopen the browser, every third time launching the browser will cause an incognito window to open up automatically for no apparent reason. You can show your spouse this by restarting the browser 3 times. Simply say that it opened up by itself and you simply used whatever window was open to surf the web.
See moreExtension safety
Risk impact
DownTheMall requires very minimum permissions.
Risk likelihood
DownTheMall has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.
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