1Password can not fetch website icons (favicons)!

iCloud
iCloud
Community Member

The icons that we see in the password list are fetched from the website I believe. Most of the websites when a favicon is available, it gets them, but in many cases the 1password is unable to fetch the icon and shows the first two letters of the website. May be it is not actually getting the icons from favicons, but rather from some other source, cause in many cases I see the websites clearly have their favicons but 1password fails to fetch them. To me the biggest irony is that 1password can not fetch the favicon of the 1password forum itself!
PS; I am aware that the icons could be changed manually. But that is not the point.

Exhibit A: In case the image does not load: Here is Imgur link
The same is the case for browser extension too.

Comments

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @iCloud!

    May be it is not actually getting the icons from favicons, but rather from some other source, cause in many cases I see the websites clearly have their favicons but 1password fails to fetch them.

    That is indeed the case: 1Password fetches the icon from a special server for this purpose. I believe the icon for this forum is a known one that our developers are working on adding, so it should be a matter of time before it updates by itself ;)

  • iCloud
    iCloud
    Community Member

    Thank you @ag_ana! What is the advantage of having a server for that I wonder. Since it is difficult to have a list of websites in the server, for there are literally millions of login sites out there, favicon could be a better source for icons. And also, does it not raise a issue regarding no-knowledge concept, here since the database is communicating with your server to fetch the icons, wouldn't 1password servers know which all websites I have a login for in my account!!! Would you be able to compile a data regarding how many 1password users are having a login to certain (objectionable or not) kind of website!

    An alternative, or semi-alternative approach if the privacy concern mentioned above is not a concern, and having a server of icons is not especially providing much advantage is as follows. Since favicon of a website can be easily fetched, I wonder if a code which directs the app to fetch the favicons from the website, if the logo not available in the server; or better even to just fetch the public favicons without communicating with the server. Just a thought.

  • Hey @iCloud

    And also, does it not raise a issue regarding no-knowledge concept, here since the database is communicating with your server to fetch the icons, wouldn't 1password servers know which all websites I have a login for in my account!!! Would you be able to compile a data regarding how many 1password users are having a login to certain (objectionable or not) kind of website!

    Thanks for asking. As a company that is essentially selling privacy and security it would not be in our interest to have our Rich Icon server behave as you've described. We explain our position on this here:

    About rich icons and your privacy

    As for your other concerns... we are looking at ways to make the process more seamless. One reason we use the Rich Icon server is to limit the network connections 1Password has to make, making it easier for someone to audit and manage 1Password's network activity. If 1Password had to directly connect to every website stored in order to download an icon that would make that task much more difficult. Admittedly at present it is a fairly manual process to find appropriate icons for various websites and keep them updated. No doubt it would be great if we could streamline things further.

    Ben

  • iCloud
    iCloud
    Community Member

    Thank you @Ben for the clarification. I agree with you, especially the part about if the app makes connection to all the websites to fetch favocons, it will make it appear as if 1password is contacting all websites, and it would make audit difficult. I am glad that this was not something that I observed first. It has been well thought out by your team. Hope the icon library get updated over time, even if not, then also fine. Knowing about the process and reasoning was reassuring. But this makes me think that if I have a rich icon to some rare website, then I can be sure that I am not the only 1password user to have a login in this website, while the opposite may not be true as not having a rich icon could just simply mean it has not been updated in the server!

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @iCloud:

    Hope the icon library get updated over time, even if not, then also fine. Knowing about the process and reasoning was reassuring.

    We are indeed updating it as we go along, but as Ben said, we are also thinking about ways to make this more automatic in the future ;)

  • iCloud
    iCloud
    Community Member

    Thank you both @ag_ana and @Ben !

  • You're very welcome :)

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.