Browser History

[W|M]

I don't tend to clear it, and keeping the history is very useful to getting back to where I was previously (especially if I'd followed a lot of links), and youtube videos are saved at the point where I closed them, so if I'm watching a really long video and have to close it/accidentally close it, I can easily get back to where I was by going through my browser history.

 

[LucyDuke]

This makes some sense. On the other hand, how would you know who has access to your history too?

Nobody else can use my computer.

 

[The_J]

Nobody else can use my computer.

Somebody doesn't have to use your computer to know your history. It's called "history stealing", if done remotely.

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2011/07/tracking-trackers-catch-history-thief

A link can be styled differently based on whether you've been to the page it points to. You may recall, for example, that in the early days of the web links you hadn't visited were blue and links you had visited were purple. History stealing is a practice that exploits link styling to learn a user's web browsing history. The approach is simple: to test whether the user has visited a link, add it to a page and check how it's styled.

Members of the computer security community have long considered history stealing a serious privacy vulnerability. The risk goes beyond leaking individual tidbits about past browsing; history stealing can be used to track or even identify a user. Mozilla finally implemented a fix in Firefox 4, and the other major browser vendors quickly followed. According to browser usage statistics roughly half of users remain vulnerable to history stealing.

Currently there's no danger, because current browsers are not vulnerable, but you never know when another flaw will appear.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

That would be "within a year".

Thanks.

 

[Zelig]

Currently there's no danger, because current browsers are not vulnerable, but you never know when another flaw will appear.

"Another flaw" isn't really accurate, the problem was originally poor design, not a security flaw.

Considering things on your computer that a security flaw could expose if you're worried enough to clear history, you're probably better off keeping all your word documents on a usb stick and unplugging it whenever you open a browser.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I don't tend to clear it, and keeping the history is very useful to getting back to where I was previously (especially if I'd followed a lot of links), and youtube videos are saved at the point where I closed them, so if I'm watching a really long video and have to close it/accidentally close it, I can easily get back to where I was by going through my browser history.

YouTube has its own history feature. I only clear certain videos from it if I fear it will affect my recommended videos in an undesirable way.

 

[illram]

It's convenient to keep it since I basically never have to type anything, even if where I want to go is not bookmarked. Or I can just press a letter or two. And it remembers search history... it's nice.

 

[metatron]

Do you guys keep it? If you do, why, and for how long? I really can't think of any good reason to do so.

This.

I have no browser history since.... i don't know.
I have bookmarks. A gazilllion. Some in an orderly folder sturcture (people who have their bookmarks in a single folder in which they would scroll down and stuff... omg...) some stored as links in textfiles.

 

[cardgame]

I rarely actually delete my browser history, but by default, my browser (Opera) only stores a certain amount of sites visited, anyway. So, in practice, only relatively recent history is actually still available.

I find it occasionally useful. Sometimes I accidentally close the browser, and then it's handy for getting back to where I was (especially if I'd followed a lot of links). And sometimes I want to look up more about something a day or two later. Being able to search the history is often fairly efficient then.
.

I don't know if Opera has this, but in Chrome you can open recently closed windows and it also keeps the info for back/forward from that tab, which is immensely helpful for such endeavors (link following)

 

[The_J]

"Another flaw" isn't really accurate, the problem was originally poor design, not a security flaw.

Considering things on your computer that a security flaw could expose if you're worried enough to clear history, you're probably better off keeping all your word documents on a usb stick and unplugging it whenever you open a browser.

That's not the only reason, but also a reason.

Because you never know if you have to show somebody something on youtube, and you know what could pop up after typing the you...

 

[Synobun]

Forever. It doesn't bother me that one might discover where I browse, and I can't be arsed to delete it (even if it's just a single option in the Settings). Besides, it can come in handy.

(It's come in handy twice since I started using the internet.)

 

[Zelig]

That's not the only reason, but also a reason.

Because you never know if you have to show somebody something on youtube, and you know what could pop up after typing the you...

Every browser has private mode that doesn't store any url history, cache, etc., that you should probably use for sites you don't want saved.

 

[The_J]

Every browser has private mode that doesn't store any url history, cache, etc., that you should probably use for sites you don't saved.

More or less my default mode, besides a whitelist for cookies ^^.

 

[NickyJ]

Most stuff I keep, others..... you know. (This site I try to keep private [moded]. )

 

[Zelig]

More or less my default mode, besides a whitelist for cookies ^^.

That's terribly inefficient for normal sites, if you have caching disabled you can easily increase the bandwidth you need for browsing by an order of magnitude, since you need to redownload images, stylesheets and scripts for every page you open.

 

[LucyDuke]

Somebody doesn't have to use your computer to know your history. It's called "history stealing", if done remotely.

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2011/07/tracking-trackers-catch-history-thief


Currently there's no danger, because current browsers are not vulnerable, but you never know when another flaw will appear.

I ain't scrrd.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I dumped everything when Google announced it was going to start integrating the information of Google searches, YouTube, gmail, etc, and since then I use incognito mode or InPrivate, depending on the browser. I'm increasingly concerned about privacy and tracking via the internet. I'm also increasingly a luddite.

 

[The_J]

That's terribly inefficient for normal sites, if you have caching disabled you can easily increase the bandwidth you need for browsing by an order of magnitude, since you need to redownload images, stylesheets and scripts for every page you open.

I know, I know.

But when you're doing some web developing, then you really appreciate when caching is disabled ^^.
(not that I'm really doing that at the moment, but I just really like my tin foil hat)

I ain't scrrd.

But you should .
And there's always the risk that somebody could just steal it...

 

[Zelig]

I dumped everything when Google announced it was going to start integrating the information of Google searches, YouTube, gmail, etc, and since then I use incognito mode or InPrivate, depending on the browser. I'm increasingly concerned about privacy and tracking via the internet. I'm also increasingly a luddite.

See my previous post for why disabling caching is bad.

Just set your browser (not Chrome, see Iron for Chrome minus the Google) to not accept any cookies, and you'll be fine.

 

[azzaman333]

I don't see any tangible benefit from deleting it, so unless there's some sort of built-in auto-delete, forever.