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I've just experienced a weird issue with Google Chrome's autofill function. After clicking on an email form field on a web page I'm currently developing locally (!) I was suggested an email address I have never heard of. Even worse, it was there twice, the other one with a typo:
- v.*****55@gmail.com
- v.*****55@gmail.con
I googled that email address and there's only one match linking to a public user profile on a German / British hookah forum. The associated user was last active in 2011 (according to the profile information). The only other public information is his/her nickname on that forum and that he/she has not posted anything.
So, I have never heard of that emails address, I have never heard of that forum and I have no interest in smoking hookah whatsoever.
So what has happened here?
Where does Chrome pull the autofill-suggestions from? Is it stored locally and just bound to the local installation of Chrome or are they somehow synced with the Google account and made available everywhere where I'm logged in with it?
I'm absolutely sure that I've never entered that email address anywhere into chrome (or anywhere else, because I don't know that address). I use Chrome exclusively for local development and Firefox for everything else. And in the rare cases where I need Chrome for something else, I always switch profiles so I don't interefere with my development environment.
Also, there's no chance anyone else ever entered that strange email address here, because I'm the only one using this computer, and I'm using it permanently and never leave it unlocked or without supervision.
If that's relevant, I'm signed in with a Google account in Chrome, but it's not my "real" account (I only use it for development purposes) and I've never used the associated email address anywhere. Also, I'm not logged in with it on any other device.
Is there a chance I got, well... "hacked", or is there some other explanation for that? I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 using Chromium v40.0.
Quasdunk
Posted 2015-02-09T13:26:41.620
Reputation: 101
@Dave Nope, I don't use this profile actively, in fact, I don't even use Google or Gmail actively. I'm not signed it with it in Firefox or anywhere else. And yes, it even occures in safe mode of that same profile, but not on other Chrome-profiles (where I've never been logged in with my Google account). – Quasdunk – 2015-02-09T13:56:37.653
There is absolutely no way you got hacked. – Ramhound – 2015-02-09T14:10:48.697
@Ramhound Yeah, that's actually pretty unlikely and wouldn't really make much sense, I guess... – Quasdunk – 2015-02-09T14:36:16.643