Clearing "Site and Shields Settings" resets global Shields settings

[Tonev]

Description

Clearing "Site and Shields Settings" (brave://settings/clearBrowserData) resets Brave's global Shields settings (brave://settings/shields).

Steps to Reproduce

2KeGPxt5MS.mp4

Actual result:

Global Shields settings are reset.

Expected result:

Clearing "Site and Shields Settings" shouldn't reset Brave's global Shields settings. Clearing browsing data for "Site and Shields Settings" should clear site-specific Shields settings, as explained here: #15319 (comment).

Reproduces how often:

Easily

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave	1.23.71 Chromium: 90.0.4430.72 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	b6172ef8d07ef486489a4b11b66b2eaeed50d132-refs/branch-heads/4430@{#1233}
OS	Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
JavaScript	V8 9.0.257.17
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/90.0.4430.72 Safari/537.36
Command Line	"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --enable-dom-distiller --disable-domain-reliability --no-pings --extension-content-verification=enforce_strict --extensions-install-verification=enforce --origin-trial-public-key=bYUKPJoPnCxeNvu72j4EmPuK7tr1PAC7SHh8ld9Mw3E=,fMS4mpO6buLQ/QMd+zJmxzty/VQ6B1EUZqoCU04zoRU= --sync-url=https://sync-v2.brave.com/v2 --lso-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --variations-server-url=https://variations.brave.com/seed --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode,LegacyTLSEnforced,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,PasswordImport,ReducedReferrerGranularity --disable-features=AutofillServerCommunication,SafeBrowsingEnhancedProtection,NotificationTriggers,WebOTP,TextFragmentAnchor,SignedExchangeSubresourcePrefetch,IdleDetection,SafeBrowsingEnhancedProtectionMessageInInterstitials,SubresourceWebBundles,SignedExchangePrefetchCacheForNavigations,SharingQRCodeGenerator,DirectSockets,BraveDomainBlock,AutofillEnableAccountWalletStorage,TabHoverCards,LangClientHintHeader,NetworkTimeServiceQuerying --flag-switches-begin --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode,LegacyTLSEnforced,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,PasswordImport,ReducedReferrerGranularity,EphemeralStorage --flag-switches-end
Executable Path	C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
Profile Path	C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default
Variations	7146a73c-3f4a17df

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel?

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards?
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?

Miscellaneous Information:

Worth taking a look if it's related to #15319.

[AdKiller]

Confirming the issue is still present in the latest update Version 1.24.85 Chromium: 90.0.4430.212 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[Tonev]

The issue is present in the latest stable version.

Brave	1.25.68 Chromium: 91.0.4472.77 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	1cecd5c8a856bc2a5adda436e7b84d8d21b339b6-refs/branch-heads/4472@{#1246}
OS	Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
JavaScript	V8 9.1.269.28
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.77 Safari/537.36
Command Line	"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --enable-dom-distiller --disable-domain-reliability --no-pings --origin-trial-public-key=bYUKPJoPnCxeNvu72j4EmPuK7tr1PAC7SHh8ld9Mw3E=,fMS4mpO6buLQ/QMd+zJmxzty/VQ6B1EUZqoCU04zoRU= --sync-url=https://sync-v2.brave.com/v2 --lso-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --variations-server-url=https://variations.brave.com/seed --enable-features=ReducedReferrerGranularity,PasswordImport,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,WebUIDarkMode,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,LegacyTLSEnforced --disable-features=FledgeInterestGroups,AutofillEnableAccountWalletStorage,FledgeInterestGroupAPI,InterestCohortFeaturePolicy,IdleDetection,TabHoverCards,HandwritingRecognitionWebPlatformApiFinch,FlocIdComputedEventLogging,EnableProfilePickerOnStartup,TextFragmentAnchor,NetworkTimeServiceQuerying,SubresourceWebBundles,SignedExchangePrefetchCacheForNavigations,HandwritingRecognitionWebPlatformApi,InterestCohortAPIOriginTrial,FirstPartySets,DirectSockets,TrustTokens,SignedExchangeSubresourcePrefetch,LiveCaption,AutofillServerCommunication,NotificationTriggers,WebOTP,LangClientHintHeader,FederatedLearningOfCohorts,SharingQRCodeGenerator --flag-switches-begin --enable-features=ReducedReferrerGranularity,PasswordImport,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,WebUIDarkMode,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,LegacyTLSEnforced,EphemeralStorage --flag-switches-end
Executable Path	C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
Profile Path	C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default
Variations	aed3cac0-3f4a17df7146a73c-3f4a17df

[srirambv]

This is expected behaviour. Site specific shields settings are part of the global site settings which will get reset if you clear site settings.

cc: @bridiver

[AdKiller]

This is expected behaviour. Site specific shields settings are part of the global site settings which will get reset if you clear site settings.

cc: @bridiver

I could understand site specific, but also global shield setting gets reset.

[Tonev]

@srirambv thank you for your input, but I sincerely fail to understand the idea, and looks like even @rebron isn't completely sure how all that is happening, based on this comment: #15319 (comment).

How are site-specific Shields settings different to the site-specific permissions that also fall under the "Site and Shields Settings" category? We can adjust global permissions for location, microphone, etc, and then we can give websites different permissions on a site-specific basis, but here comes the huge difference: if we clear the browsing data for "Site and Shields Settings", we won't have to re-adjust the global permissions.

If site-specific Shields settings are a part of the global Shields settings, aren't site-specific permissions also a part of the global permissions?

According to you, if I understand you correctly, users have to go through every website they have made site-specific Shields changes if they want to change those Shields settings? Not trying to be disrespectful to anyone, I highly appreciate Brave's team's hard work, but if that's how Shields settings are supposed to work, I sincerely believe changes are required.

[bridiver]

@Tonev shields settings are content settings (site settings) and they are treated just like all other content settings in the chromium code, but what you are pointing out is a legitimate bug because the global settings are implemented as content settings with the default host, but global settings should not be cleared with site settings. @Tonev were the cookie settings also cleared? They shouldn't be because those use the chromium global pref value, but there is no global pref value for the others right now. Ultimately the global settings have to be implemented as content settings, but they should be changed to be automatically generated from pref values so they are unaffected by clearing site settings.

[Tonev]

@bridiver

• brave://settings/shields before & after clearing "Site and Shields Settings" browsing data:

• brave://settings/cookies before & after clearing "Site and Shields Settings" browsing data:

• The section below is also a part of brave://settings/cookies but since it's related to site-specific settings, I believe it works correctly:

Were the cookie settings also cleared? They shouldn't be because those use the chromium global pref value, but there is no global pref value for the others right now.

The "Cookie blocking" option at brave://settings/shields was reset after clearing the browsing data for "Site and Shields Settings", which led to the global cookies settings at brave://settings/cookies being reset. It makes sense to me that the global Shields settings are related to the global cookies settings, but I don't know if they're supposed to reset. Other than that, clearing the browsing data for "Site and Shields Settings" leads to the site-specific section at brave://settings/cookies being cleared which is completely normal to me.

This bug was easily reproduced on Android (#16217) so it would be correct to add the OS/Android label.

[giwrgosmant]

Any progress on that issue?

[bridiver]

Any progress on that issue?

Some changes have been merged to fix the way defaults are set, but the defaults are currently still set as wildcard content settings. @petemill I thought you created a ticket for switching the defaults to prefs, but now I can't find it.

[giwrgosmant]

Any progress on that issue?

Some changes have been merged to fix the way defaults are set, but the defaults are currently still set as wildcard content settings. @petemill I thought you created a ticket for switching the defaults to prefs, but now I can't find it.

Still waiting for this, so I can switch to Brave as my main browser. 🫤
If someone in the team can put this as priority I would appreciate it.

[bridiver]

Any progress on that issue?

Some changes have been merged to fix the way defaults are set, but the defaults are currently still set as wildcard content settings. @petemill I thought you created a ticket for switching the defaults to prefs, but now I can't find it.

Still waiting for this, so I can switch to Brave as my main browser. 🫤 If someone in the team can put this as priority I would appreciate it.

@giwrgosmant progress has been made and some settings have been switched over to prefs, but not all of them. It's a bit complicated dealing with the settings across different versions of Brave when users have sync enabled.

[giwrgosmant]

Any progress on that issue?

Some changes have been merged to fix the way defaults are set, but the defaults are currently still set as wildcard content settings. @petemill I thought you created a ticket for switching the defaults to prefs, but now I can't find it.

Still waiting for this, so I can switch to Brave as my main browser. 🫤 If someone in the team can put this as priority I would appreciate it.

@giwrgosmant progress has been made and some settings have been switched over to prefs, but not all of them. It's a bit complicated dealing with the settings across different versions of Brave when users have sync enabled.

Hey I understand and I appreciate the work of Brave team.
But this bug is over a year now... It's affect the privacy. No other browser have this issue.
All I'm ask is to give priority to this.
I see new features and all these which I also like...but don't you think this issue need more attention and get the proper priority?
Thanks.