Do You Use Google Chrome's Autocomplete?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
If you have enabled Chrome’s Autofill, you may be broadcasting more of your private information than you ever imagined (or ever wanted) onto the Internet.

But, it actually sends out your credit card details, too, which is something that is completely shocking to hear about.
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Didn't show anything for me... I use autocomplete. Of course, I'm not stupid enough to let Chrome (or any browser) remember my credit card numbers...

None of the other fields worked, though -- didn't know anything that I didn't explicitly provide it.
 
Not a significant risk. Web thieves get your data by purchasing it from legit sources.
 
Well that is shitty. I don't have autocomplete enabled, but just providing my first name also submitted my email and full address.

That is terrible.
 
This is a big reason that I stopped using Chrome long ago. I didn't like the fact that when I erased my Windows install and reinstalled Chrome, it already had my CC number memorized. Then Youtube daily pesters me to use my real name instead of my internet handle. Chrome changes all of my advertising on every website to the same thing. So if I look at some adult diapers for my mother then I have adult diaper advertising when I visit any website afterwards. If I get some spam mail about joining a F2P game then every website is showing me funky F2P ads.

Chrome is more about Google knowing everything about you for the privilege of using their browser. Gmail does the same thing. It is nothing more than data acquisition for Google to send to advertisers so they can tailor advertising better for you. In the end all Chrome does is make the internet boring as every website runs the same ads all day and a way for Google to make more money selling your information to advertisers.
 
Yikes! I use autocomplete all the time. Does Firefox do this too? I guess I'm switching back to Firefox.
 
This might freak some people out, but on many sites, if you have just the account name, you can buy anything. I'm not talking small businesses either. I deal with a multi-billion a year supplier who only requires my login. I would say I spend over $100k/yr with such businesses.

I will also say this, Chrome has never autocompleted any of my CC data. Not the number, not the expiration, not the code.

Only when you try to change the Ship To address, does it freak out.
 
Yet another reason to use Firefox. A browser that is created by a company that makes most of its money by using your personal information to convince others to buy advertising, is at odds with privacy. Chrome is the worst of it with its proprietary bits, but even Chromium will leak info etc.. like this due to the legacy of its design.

Its really, really frustrating because Google otherwise makes some quality software. I wish the Google of a decade ago or so was here - one that provided great products and if they were "free", they were up front about what the "cost" would be - like putting a single box of ad-words in Gmail that scaped terms from the mail you were currently reading, and did not attempt to continue to track trends and monitor you. Now, the "Real name" policy of Google+, the attempt to change everything to Google+ (ie Why can't I comment on GooglePlay for an Android App without using G+? Why do you keep trying to get me to switch to G+ on YouTube?). Sadly, many of the neat and helpful apps like "Google Now" (and many others on Android) require you to allow them tons of intrusions into your privacy!

I'd be happy to pay google a reasonable amount of money if they create quality, open source/open specification stuff...that I didn't have to worry about my privacy if I chose to use it! I don't want everything linked together, being monitored, being bubbled, and everything I do analyzed and cross-referenced, stored forever and monetized!

We've seen more than ever that privacy and security are under assault from both governments and their corporate puppetmasters who hold the purse strings. We have to have the discipline not to jump at every new bauble that requires we give up privacy to get the new shiny, and choose tech when we can that is actually designed with the user's interest in mind; Free and Open Source especially (but this is not enough in and of itself - Ubuntu for instance is FOSS but because they put monetization above user privacy, it leaks data and embeds referral IDs for Amazon in the desktop search...but at least if you know about it, you can turn it off. I just wish they'd be a better ambassador for Linux and simply respect the users' privacy).

For browsers, Firefox is generally the best choice (there are some other, smaller browsers like Midori etc), which has good privacy and security features, while being easily extensible and easy to use for both gurus and novices. Check out www.prism-break.org for more software that has your privacy in mind.
 
Mozilla has never been the best in the last 10 years.

Firefox is now the least safe browser around, and it has poor performance.

IE 11? I need to run that some more. For now, Chrome is best.
 
Qinsp said:
Mozilla has never been the best in the last 10 years.

Firefox is now the least safe browser around, and it has poor performance.

IE 11? I need to run that some more. For now, Chrome is best.
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I love me some Firefox. Been using it for many years. Page loads are instant and I can leave it up all day without any performance issues. Can't stand Chrome, which is odd because I love most Google products.
 
lol, that's one of the several privacy raping "features" that SRWare Iron strips from Google Chrome. <3 dat Iron.
 
Sadly, I'd use other browsers more if they just simply worked. HTML and Javascript are standard web coding, and shouldn't be treated like a foreign language interpreted differently by different people.

IE10/IE11?

I get rendering issues on different websites. Hell, some websites with image slideshows don't render 100% perfect in IE10/IE11. I shouldn't have to resort to Compatibility Mode or change rendering engines just to view a website. And, the Flash plugin for IE still has issues; stupid Adobe. Software rendering shows black streaks across the screen if IE is left open for a few hours, and crashes web pages quite often. Switch it off and use hardware rendering, and the browser still crashes a lot after more than a half dozen tabs are opened. This is with 3 different operating systems-- Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, and nearly a dozen different versions of AMD Catalyst drivers. IE10/IE11 still has issues with web page rendering. If HTML and Javascript code are a standard, why in the world does IE still have issues rendering them?​
Firefox?
Great if it didn't stutter so much when it approaches 2GB or 3GB-plus of RAM usage. A 64-bit client is desperately needed for this browser.​

Chrome?
Ain't perfect and still crashes with its internal Flash plugin. Meh, so it shares information like a nude guy streaking across a football field, Facebook, or the NSA. Turn off Auto-Complete and use common sense when it comes to using your personal information on websites. But, it's the one browser other than Firefox that renders web pages very well. It's also more stable than Firefox when it hits the 2GB or 3GB RAM usage.​
 
My main bitch about Firefox is that is uses Ask.com as its search engine and you cant change it at least you couldnt change it the last time I used it. I do a ton of searching and I want Google to be it. Its not that hard to make Google my home page then just click the home page button when I want to search for something but its just easier to type it in the address bar and hit enter. Just wish you could choose.
 
Fuck it. After just an hour on Firefox, Im back on Chrome. Just works better, smoother and snappier. Oh well, guess Google can go on shopping sprees with my dinky credit card.
 
MacLeod said:
My main bitch about Firefox is that is uses Ask.com as its search engine and you cant change it at least you couldnt change it the last time I used it. I do a ton of searching and I want Google to be it. Its not that hard to make Google my home page then just click the home page button when I want to search for something but its just easier to type it in the address bar and hit enter. Just wish you could choose.
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I'm not sure what you mean about Ask.com - I'm thinking this may be resulting from something else you have installed (Oracle Java updates often bundle Ask.com and stick it to your browser, with or without a toolbar etc...). Firefox's default Mozilla Start Page searches Google, and up in the Search Bar ( to the right of the address bar) it comes with Google pre-installed, alongside Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Amazon, Ebay and more. I've added additional search engines like DuckDuckGo, IXQuick, and Startpage (which is an anonymized Google search) - they install just like any other Firefox addon.

Hell, there are plenty of addons/extensions like the DuckDuckGo extension (different from just the Search Engine, but installs it as an option for the Search Bar too) that will make you able to just type stuff into the multi-bar and have it search. I rarely do this (I don't think its too much trouble to swap over to the Search Bar), but I just tried it and it showed a DuckDuckGo results page for me, which is in line with the extension that I have installed.

Unless something has gone very wrong, Firefox isn't locked to Ask in any way.
 
I just use Chromium instead of Chrome. Google isn't very trustworthy.

Firefox had a "bug" back in the 3.6.x days where credit card fields were stored plain-text in the user's profile's database file. So any program could just open that file up, pull out the credit card number and e-mail it anywhere. Considering how many people just go out on the web and download Bob's Media Player or some other crazy closed-source app where you have no. idea. at. all. what it's actually doing behind the scenes, it's not hard to see how people get themselves into bad situations.

Hopefully Chrome isn't dumb enough to store credit card numbers in plain text. In fact those fields shouldn't be stored at all.
 
I think you guys are going a little crazy. Yes, it submits all that but you will be signing up for a pretty fishy site for it to take advantage of it. Eg.
Sign up for Hard Forum
Use auto complete
Finishes email and name automatically
Finish and submit
Chrome also submits Credit Card
So? First of all, the site owner would need to know about this and figure out a way to catch that credit card number, and is Hard Forum going to steal you CC number anyways?
 
MacLeod said:
My main bitch about Firefox is that is uses Ask.com as its search engine and you cant change it at least you couldnt change it the last time I used it. I do a ton of searching and I want Google to be it. Its not that hard to make Google my home page then just click the home page button when I want to search for something but its just easier to type it in the address bar and hit enter. Just wish you could choose.
Click to expand...

I think you must have installed something that made that happen. I'm pretty sure the default for years has been google search for firefox, and using the drop down next to the search bar you can change it to anything you want.
 
I believe Ask.com can be installed accidentally if you keep it checked when installing Java. Other than that, there's very few software that give you that option.

DirectX Web installer asks you to install the Bing toolbar, for example. Just have to remember to uncheck them.

But, it's always been Google for Firefox, or DuckDuckGo if using Firefox in Linux Mint.

Try the following:
http://help.ask.com/link/portal/30015/30018/ArticleFolder/11/Ask-com-Browser-Toolbar

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421591,00.asp
 
Qinsp said:
Not a significant risk. Web thieves get your data by purchasing it from legit sources.
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QFT, why bother snooping public wifi for chromebook users when you can just order fullz from Experian directly?
 
Yet another reason I'm glad I decided to not use chrome.
 
Sly said:
Where does it get the credit card number?
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From a hidden form field, which Chrome auto-completes even though it's not visible to the user. It's a dumb oversight on Google's part, but it isn't nefarious.
 
Tudz said:
I think you must have installed something that made that happen. I'm pretty sure the default for years has been google search for firefox, and using the drop down next to the search bar you can change it to anything you want.
Click to expand...

It changed with an update. I opened Firefox and it was Google. I let it update, it restarted and it's now Ask. I did some Googling and there are references to that problem dating back to 2009. Don't know what the deal is. Couldn't find much in the way of how to fix it so I just went back to Chrome and been there ever since.

I know what you guys are talking about like the way Java is always wanting to install a toolbar and you have to unchecked it but that wasn't the case here. It was weird.
 
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