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Question

Google Chrome History on my Android--Please Help.

Dec 5, 2015 5:15PM PST

I bought two Samsung S6 phones last night. Today my wife and I installed some ringtone apps (free). Now in the search history it shows two porn sites, among the rest of the correct history, that neither one of us ever typed in, or searched. I have not surfed at all on my phone yet, no searches, nothing--and she went to a few normal sites like home depot, target, etc...I don't understand how this happened? Any thoughts or information would be greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
This is a factory reset on both.
Dec 5, 2015 5:25PM PST

How is on the web.
Dafydd.

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Please clarify
Dec 5, 2015 5:58PM PST

I don't understand your question. But I don't want to reset it to factory, just yet, I want to know how this happened, and where it came from. I just bought my kids phones for christmas, and I don't want this popping up in their histories, or phones.

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Answer
website problem
Dec 7, 2015 3:59AM PST

Don't worry, it's not your problem.Actually there are some sites which are connected with others sites with a link.In google results they show the sites which you have been searching for, but when you clicked on that one it will go to the site to which it is linked up.That's a common issue.

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--Kiranchaitanya
Dec 7, 2015 6:08AM PST

Thanks. However, I hadn't even surfed on the phone yet. I assume my wife had surfed a bit. What about apps form the google play store? My wife and I installed a couple apps of ringtones. So my questions are, how do I figure out if it's the apps, or a site my wife went to that had an embedded redirect like that? Literally she went to Home Depot, Target, etc. these are legitimate big chain stores?

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AD SUPPORTED APPS!
Dec 7, 2015 6:19AM PST

Without diving into this deeply, almost all ad supported (free) apps can cause entries to appear in the history. This is the bane of free apps and why I didn't install any free ad supported apps onto my Android phones.

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R. Proffitt
Dec 7, 2015 6:41AM PST

To be clear--These entries can appear without ever having gone to these or any other type of sites?
Is there a way to figure out whose phone the app is on, or which phone was used that opened the ad, (does the ad even have to be opened to do this?) that put this troubling entry into the history? Each phone has to have it's own digital footprint right, like a pc? Once this happened and I read some things about what you described, I uninstalled the apps from my phone my phone. Not sure if that will change anything. You can tell I am not super tech savvy, I'm alright, but no hacker, analyst, programmer, or even and IT person. I appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

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Yes.
Dec 7, 2015 6:56AM PST

There are long tortuous articles on this so I'll not go deep here. Even installing an ad supported app can cause it to load up the ad "queue" and cause entries to show up. And you didn't launch the app.

As to the digital footprint, yes. Apple has been trying new things like http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/06/ios8-to-stymie-trackers-and-marketers-with-mac-address-randomization/ so tracking and such is messed up.

But ad supported apps and what they do are tough to dive into. That is, there are general things we know but as each app can do this differently I think we much keep it simple. For me that meant the end of me using ad supported apps. It used to be OK but today it's getting too weird.

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Thank you for the info
Dec 7, 2015 7:20AM PST

Thanks you have helped me understand.

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Answer
Website popups may be
Dec 8, 2015 1:23AM PST

Sometimes when searching for something on the net we see that another link open inside a website. That's called pop ups. Maybe when you were searching for something pop up appears and minimized in the background. It happens. Nothing to worry about and I never give you advice about resetting your phone because of this minor problem.

You can disable this after going to Google chrome browser settings. You will find allow pop ups option there. Just disable it and clean rest of the history.
Hope this will help you.

Regards
Elena Black

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Thanks but...
Dec 8, 2015 8:10AM PST

You missed the part (maybe reread it at the top) where I hadn't even surfed the internet yet, I searched nothing, I hadn't even opened the chrome app on my phone, and this appeared in the history. What I need to know is how to track down which phone it came from, and the app that did it if possible so when my kids get their phones (they are all linked through our account) they won't have things like this pop into their history, or even on their phones, because of an app they have, or my wife and I have.

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do you sync with chrome on your computers
Dec 10, 2015 2:14AM PST

with chrome sync you can view your history across devices and computers. check your google dashboard and see if your sync is enable.

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Answer
Anonymous
Dec 10, 2015 1:03AM PST

don't worry!!that's not your problem it generally happens sometimes for everybody...in some websites on the internet they will automatically redirect to porn sites and it will come back to your site in a fraction of seconds so those websites will see in history....most of the websites like this only..it happens only with mobiles.not in pc's.....