Should I enable the other “clear on exit” options such as history, “passwords and other sign-in data”, etc. for better privacy or is the settings stated on the privacy guides website really enough?
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With cookies kept permanently, every time you visit a site (at least one which issues cookies) it will immediately identify you as the individual who previously visited the site at a certain time/date. And if you logged in to the site, it tells the site which accounts on that site you have logged in to before. In a sense, cookies are the original, pre-fingerprinting web browser tracking method.
Turn on clear on exit and add websites for which you want to stay logged in to the exceptions list. Its much better than manually clearing cookies for each website , in some cases you even forget to clear cookies after sessions manually.
@kevino I’m not doing it manually, I have enabled Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows in the Cookies and other site data menu as the website says, i’m just wondering if I should enable the other “clear on exit” boxes or if that single setting is enough?
@dumpster Do you mean that as long as that setting from the website is enabled, all the others are obsolete (except for browsing history)
I think the single setting should be enough as is the case of firefox too.
Ah sorry I misunderstood your original question.
History is mostly safe to keep. The browser doesn’t directly share your history with websites, except when you pull a link from it, either manually or when suggested by your browser in the search bar. The problem with this is if your link contains unique identifiers like those used in url tracking. So saved history isn’t 100% safe from leaking your identity.
Cached images and files can identify you as a previous visitor. If you don’t need to download any of the site’s media files, clearly you’ve been there before.
Saved passwords I’m not sure about, though if they autofill, the following applies.
I’m not sure about autofill. Basically, if the website can read what you type before you hit submit (I think this is possible with Javascript), it will identify you as a person who has previously typed whatever gets autofilled.
The bigger threat with autofill is that malicious sites have often attempted to fool autofill into providing your passwords to them.
I’m not sure about “site settings”, but I believe refers to your choices about allowing notifications, camera, microphone, and/or location access, etc.
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