Web browser bugs are routinely blamed for creating huge networks of compromised PCs and undermining the safety of ecommerce transactions. Now one woman says a "security bug" in Mozilla led to the break up of her engagement.

The anonymous woman shared a Windows PC with her former fiancé. Both had separate user logins on the same machine and both preferred Mozilla to Internet Explorer. All was apparently well until the woman opened up a list of sites whose password was never saved and unearthed evidence that her man was a frequent visitor of dating websites. The woman took this as evidence of infidelity and split up with the apparent love cheat. She then had the presence of mind to report the privacy flaw to the Mozilla Foundation.

"This privacy flaw has caused my fiancé and I to break-up after having dated for five years... Firefox should be respecting every single area of privacy per user on one system. It's not doing that," the woman writes.

The posting generated debate about whether the "bug" was a flaw or a feature of Firefox. The issue proved somewhat difficult to reproduce and may have arisen because the fiancé had imported settings from another browser or otherwise messed up in his efforts to hide his browsing tracks.

In any case, the "bug" generated a lively debate on the Bugzilla mailing list. One poster writes:

I would also like to add that this seems more like a 'feature' at this point. There is a button under Tools > Options > Privacy > History. On the History tab, I believe, you will see a button for 'Erase My Relationship', under which, there are check boxes for '..because he is a cheating bastard', '..because he is a sneaky bastard who demeans me by thinking he can go behind my back', and '..because he jerked is insultingly stupid, so stupid, he deserved to be snared and he would have been a liability to have in your life, long-term'. Check all that apply...

Some posters raised that the possibility that the miscreant simply browsed dating websites without going the extra step and becoming unfaithful. While criticising the man for deception several posters advised the woman to consider taking her "errant" partner back.

Are people who watch the Sopranos mob-style criminals?

Are people who watch SpongeBob interested in living in a pineapple under the sea?

Are women who watch Sex In The City as horny as the ones on the show?

There is some entertainment value to these websites. While you can use them to engage in unfaithful acts, they also could be used just to get a little chuckle, titillation, or self-satisfaction.

Who knows what your fiancé was getting out of it.

Meanwhile Redsaber offered to following simple advice to libidinous males.

I think the only solution for now is very simple:

Never share your computer with your girlfriend.

The whole enlightening thread can be found on Bugzilla here. ®