Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Crash Reporting and Privacy

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 24 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

more options

Hello,

I have recently submitted a Thunderbird crash report. I am a little concerned about what personal/sensitive data might have been included in the report. I viewed the crash report online via the id and did not see any personal data in it. However, I am worried that the Raw Dump, Mini Dump, or "View the Unredacted Crash" might contain sensitive email data/passwords.

Also, is there a way to delete a crash report from the server?

Thanks for your help.

Hello, I have recently submitted a Thunderbird crash report. I am a little concerned about what personal/sensitive data might have been included in the report. I viewed the crash report online via the id and did not see any personal data in it. However, I am worried that the Raw Dump, Mini Dump, or "View the Unredacted Crash" might contain sensitive email data/passwords. Also, is there a way to delete a crash report from the server? Thanks for your help.

Chosen solution

Your emails have not been sent and neither have your passwords.

I regularly see developers looking for a way to reproduce a crash. Simply because they do not have the data of the crash. I am feeling like this thread is a digital black hole. You want something you can not have and because you can not have it you are obsessing about what is being hidden from you.

You could try posting in IRC, https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC but really I doubt anyone will be able to provide you with the information you seek. Because you are looking for access to data you do not have and very few people do. You had the opportunity to view the data before it was sent, did you? I would assume not, or we would not be having this conversation. Now you are getting all excited about what it might contain. The time to show interest was before you sent it. It is not compulsory.

I think you need to realize. Thunderbird is a community project. This is not corporate America. It is a small group of volunteers and a couple of contractors. They have no offices, not phones and no official residence. Mozilla do, Thunderbird project does not. Thunderbird has people involved from a number of European countries Asia/Oceania the Americas and Africa. HEnce even those involved struggle to manage a digital face to face meeting due to time zones.

The unredacted part gives access to your email address that you might or might not have included in the crash report. That is the one asked for in the crash reporter, not any that might be in Thunderbird.

See anything different in this support item from 2012 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/945363

Or this from 2010 http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2058887

The crash reporter is exactly the same as the one in Firefox. So read here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozillacrashreporter

That is about it. My knowledge is entirely exhausted.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (8)

more options

There is n way I am aware of to remove a submitted crash report.

I assume you have read this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter-tb

Inclusion of private information in a report is quite unlikely. I can not even get the log feature to show me my passwords and it is my computer and my log. https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Windows

I wish folk would worry more about all their personal information on Facebook, snap-chat et al and not worry about obscure possibilities.

more options

Is there a way for me to gain access to the Raw Dump and Unredacted Crash? It's a bit worrisome that there "may be some sensitive data" in there:

"Note that most crash report fields are visible, but a few privacy-sensitive parts of it are only available to users who are logged in and have "minidump access"." From:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/Crash_reporting/Understanding_crash_reports

more options

Kinerty said

Is there a way for me to gain access to the Raw Dump and Unredacted Crash? It's a bit worrisome that there "may be some sensitive data" in there:

Become a trusted contributor working with crash reports or get a job with Mozilla where you can justify access to the information and yes you can have access.

more options

BTW... I do not have access and I have been doing this stuff for about 5 years

more options

Thanks for your help Matt... but I'm pretty upset about the possibility that some of my emails, passwords, and who knows what else might have been sent. And now I have no way of knowing what was in the report... pretty scary stuff. Is there someone I can talk to about this? I can't seem to find any contact info for the Thunderbird developers other than this forum.

Thanks for understanding.

more options

Chosen Solution

Your emails have not been sent and neither have your passwords.

I regularly see developers looking for a way to reproduce a crash. Simply because they do not have the data of the crash. I am feeling like this thread is a digital black hole. You want something you can not have and because you can not have it you are obsessing about what is being hidden from you.

You could try posting in IRC, https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC but really I doubt anyone will be able to provide you with the information you seek. Because you are looking for access to data you do not have and very few people do. You had the opportunity to view the data before it was sent, did you? I would assume not, or we would not be having this conversation. Now you are getting all excited about what it might contain. The time to show interest was before you sent it. It is not compulsory.

I think you need to realize. Thunderbird is a community project. This is not corporate America. It is a small group of volunteers and a couple of contractors. They have no offices, not phones and no official residence. Mozilla do, Thunderbird project does not. Thunderbird has people involved from a number of European countries Asia/Oceania the Americas and Africa. HEnce even those involved struggle to manage a digital face to face meeting due to time zones.

The unredacted part gives access to your email address that you might or might not have included in the crash report. That is the one asked for in the crash reporter, not any that might be in Thunderbird.

See anything different in this support item from 2012 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/945363

Or this from 2010 http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2058887

The crash reporter is exactly the same as the one in Firefox. So read here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozillacrashreporter

That is about it. My knowledge is entirely exhausted.

more options

Thanks for bearing with me and all your help Matt.

more options

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/#crash-reporter gives an outline, with a link to more details. The upshot is, any data which you might consider private is NOT available to the public - i.e. the actual mini dump is not public, and even with Mozilla is restricted.