Privacy breach? Many websites save what you type – even if you don’t press ‘Send’, ‘Enter’ or ‘Post’
- Ever feel like you are being watch online? Chances are that you are. Some websites can watch what you are typing in real time
- It’s up to companies to tell users if their unposted content is being saved
When a Facebook user starts to post a photo, but decides not to and cancels, the social network still keeps a copy – saving a memory of something the person chose not to share, or wanted instead to forget.
Yet it’s not just Facebook holding onto the ghosts of our internet pasts. Many websites start sharing or saving the text, photos or other information before we commit with a click of “Post”, “Enter” or “Submit,” and sometimes even after we choose to delete.
Many online users have a general sense that they’re being tracked online – a long-lasting footprint of browser “cookies”, website logins and search histories that can follow them around the web. That data can generally help speed up web browsing and allow websites to more precisely track a person for purposes of search or advertising.
But some websites go a step further, by allowing the company to see what its users are currently typing.