Chapter 14: Clearing Your Tracks

Overview

It's your tenth anniversary. Your spouse turns to you inquisitively and says, "I'm sorry, and you are?"

It wasn't all that long ago that computers were equally rude. So-called dumb terminals knew nothing about the person in front of them and had to keep asking the same question day in and day out: "I'm sorry, and you are?"

Thankfully, you live in the personal computing era. And what's the use in having a computer if there's nothing personal about it? Life is hard, and computers make it easier by remembering information about you so you don't have to keep entering it.

As possibly the most-used program on your computer, your Web browser in particular needs to keep track of all sorts of information: your usernames, passwords, where you downloaded stuff, and the complicated addresses of sites you visit frequently. Can you imagine if you had to remember everything on your own? Human brains just weren't designed to store the Internet (and the Firefox developers haven't yet acquired the licensing to redesign them).

Trustworthy technologies, of course, keep you in control of your private information at all times. Firefox gives you control over just how much information you want Firefox to remember about you and allows you to wipe the slate clean at any time. Also keep in mind that none of the information Firefox stores about you is accessible via the Internet; it all remains on your own computer.