Automating Daily Extraction of Chrome Browsing History and Email Delivery on macOS

Requirement : Retrieve all URLs and visit times from a target's Chrome browsing history for the previous day, store them in a txt file, and email the file to a specified address automatically each day.

Background : Chrome stores its history in a SQLite database located at /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/History . The urls table contains the needed fields url and last_visit_time . Python's built‑in sqlite3 module can query this database.

Preparation : macOS Sierra, Python 3.6+, Chrome, a QQ email address, its authorization code, and SMTP server smtp.qq.com . All paths must be absolute.

Script: get_history.py – extracts URLs and timestamps and writes them to result.txt :

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from email import encoders
from email.header import Header
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.utils import parseaddr, formataddr
import smtplib
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('affix_file', help='the path of the affix')
args = parser.parse_args()

def _format_addr(s):
    name, addr = parseaddr(s)
    return formataddr((Header(name, 'utf-8').encode(), addr))

from_addr = "[email protected]"  # sender
password = "xxxxxxxx"          # authorization code
to_addr = "[email protected]"  # receiver
smtp_server = "smtp.qq.com"

msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg['From'] = _format_addr('风一样的女子 <%s>' % from_addr)
msg['To'] = _format_addr('风一样的男子 <%s>' % to_addr)
msg['Subject'] = Header('chrome历史记录每日更新', 'utf-8').encode()
msg.attach(MIMEText('窥探隐私是犯法的啊！', 'plain', 'utf-8'))

with open(args.affix_file, 'r') as f:
    mime = MIMEBase('result', 'txt', filename='result.txt')
    mime.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename='result.txt')
    mime.add_header('Content-ID', '<0>')
    mime.add_header('X-Attachment-Id', '0')
    mime.set_payload(f.read())
    encoders.encode_base64(mime)
    msg.attach(mime)

server = smtplib.SMTP(smtp_server, 25)
server.set_debuglevel(1)
server.login(from_addr, password)
server.sendmail(from_addr, [to_addr], msg.as_string())
server.quit()

Script: send_email.py – queries the History DB and writes the result to result.txt :

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sqlite3

history_db = '/Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/History'

c = sqlite3.connect(history_db)
cursor = c.cursor()

try:
    select_statement = "SELECT url, datetime(last_visit_time/1000000-11644473600,'unixepoch','localtime') AS tm FROM urls WHERE julianday('now') - julianday(tm) < 1 ORDER BY tm;"
    cursor.execute(select_statement)
except sqlite3.OperationalError:
    print('[!] The database is locked! Please exit Chrome and run the script again.')
    quit()

results = cursor.fetchall()
with open('/Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/result.txt', 'w') as f:
    for i in range(len(results)):
        f.write(results[i][1] + '\n')
        f.write(results[i][0] + '\n')

Execution : Running the two scripts produces a result.txt file containing URLs and timestamps, which is then emailed as an attachment. Sample screenshots show the extracted data.

Shell wrapper (start.sh) combines the steps:

cp /Users/Marcel/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/History /Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/
python /Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/get_history.py
python /Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/send_mail.py /Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/result.txt

Executing ./start.sh runs the three commands sequentially.

Cron setup : Add an absolute‑path entry to crontab -e such as:

20 14 * * * /Users/Marcel/Desktop/tmp/code/chrome_history/start.sh

which runs the task daily at 14:20. All paths must be absolute; otherwise the job fails.

Common issues and solutions:

QQ email requires an authorization code, not the login password.

The History DB may be locked if Chrome is running; close Chrome or copy the file first.

Timestamp conversion: divide last_visit_time by 1,000,000 and subtract 11644473600 to get Unix epoch.

Ensure absolute paths in both the shell script and the crontab entry.

Summary :

Use Python to connect to a SQLite database and execute SQL.

Use Python's email modules to send an email with an attachment.

Automate the workflow with a shell script and schedule it via crontab.

The method is for personal experimentation; monitoring others' privacy is unethical.

Outlook :

Package the whole process into a cross‑platform executable.

Current solution only works when the computer is on and networked; further work is needed for continuous monitoring.