Why does selecting a site under History take me there without a password, violating privacy?
When I go to Yahoo Mail in IE I get right in, but going from a Mozilla bookmark always requires a password. OK. But clicking mail under History takes me (or anyone) directly in with no password required. I'm using a private computer, but does this mechanism offer a trapdoor into protected sites?
All Replies (4)
Websites remembering you and automatically log you on is stored in a cookie.
So as long as you have such a cookie then the website will recognize you and you do not need to enter the password.
You will have to make sure to log out before closing the tab(s) with that website.
Thanks, but what you describe is true for me in IE, not in Mozilla. Here, even though I don't log out, Yahoo Mail always responds to a bookmark click with a password query (maybe because I haven't logged out in IE ??). It responds to a History click with unchallenged entry. Anyone browsing my computer would be blocked from my account one way, not the other. If this is true for password-protected sites for other users, it might merit some thought.
Firefox may only be showing pages from the cache when you click a history item of a page that you have visited, but you may not be logged on anymore when using the bookmark to go to the log in page asks to enter the name and password.
I'm still confused. Clicking on either a menu item in History or on the displayed cache page there takes me right into the site, exactly as if I'd entered a password. I may not be knowledgeable enough to understand this, and I may be making a fuss about what is actually nothing. I don't want to test this two-ways-in problem with online banking, but I do wonder.