To access all of the privacy options described in this chapter:
This opens the Privacy panel, which includes several different sections that you use to clear out information that has been stored on your computer while surfing, and also to control what kinds of information get stored in the first place. These sections include:
Note: Click the above links for detailed field help for these options. For general information on what these options do, refer to Clearing History and Other Saved Information.
To open a particular section of the Privacy panel, click on the + icon to the left of that section. This opens the section and displays the fields that it contains. For example, when you open the Page History section the window changes to this:
The following sections describe each of the sections on the Privacy panel in more detail.
Clearing History
and Other Saved InformationWhenever you browse the web, information such as the sites you have visited and the images you have viewed are stored on your computer. This is done, in part, to make surfing the web easier: for example, it's useful to know what sites you have visited so that you can go find them again later. (The Back and Forward buttons also require this information.) Similarly, Netscape Browser caches images and other files so that pages can load more quickly when you return to them.
On the other hand, other people accessing your machine can also potentially use this information to find out where you have been on the Web: this is particularly a concern for sensitive information such as passwords to secure web-sites, or personal information that you submit over the web through forms.
The Privacy panel lists all of the types of information that Netscape Browser stores on your computer as you browse, including:
| Page History | Your browsing history is a list of all web pages that you have visited over a specified number of days. This information appears on the History tab on My Sidebar. |
| Search History | Your search history includes all search text that you have entered in web-based search engines. |
| Datacard Manager | Datacard Manager can save personal data that you enter into online forms, such as your name, address, phone numbers, and so on. This information is stored on your hard drive. Then, when a web site presents you with a form, Datacard Manager can fill it in automatically. |
| Passcard Manager | Passcard Manager can help you remember some or all of your names and passwords by storing them on your computer's hard disk, and entering them for you automatically when you visit such sites. |
| Download Manager History | Download Manager allows you to keep track of files that you have downloaded from the internet. |
| Cookies | A cookie is a small bit of information that is used by some web sites to track information about you, such as your preferences when using that site. When you visit a site that uses cookies, the site might ask your browser to place one or more cookies on your hard disk. |
| Cache | The cache includes copies of web pages that you have visited so that they can be quickly re-loaded when you return to them. |
At any time, you can clear all of the information from any of these sections by clicking the Clear button that appears to the right of that section. When you do this, Netscape Browser permanently deletes all of the files in that section.
Tips:
If you want Netscape Browser to automatically clear all stored files each time you close the browser, select the Clear My Tracks on Exit checkbox that appears near the top of the Privacy panel.
Note: Notice that when you check this box, the history icon in your Navigation toolbar changes.
You may want to select this checkbox when you are not the only person using a computer. Selecting this checkbox ensures that other users will not be able to view any other information that you may have viewed or transmitted while you were using Netscape Browser.
Note: After using a public computer with this checkbox activated, you should always close down Netscape Browser when you are finished. Clear My Tracks on Exit only deletes history information after you close the browser.
Managing CookiesCookies are small files that are used by some web sites to store information on your computer. Cookies are used, for example, to save any preferences that you set for a web site, or so that the web site can track statistics on how their web site is used. (For a somewhat more detailed overview on cookies, refer to What Are Cookies and How Do They Work?)
Before loading a web page that uses cookies, your browser handles the page's cookies by doing two things:
Note: Whenever a web site uses cookies in such a manner that
requires you to be notified, Netscape Browser displays the
icon in your status bar.
The chapter Blocking Pop-ups, Cookies, and Other Unwanted Behaviours describes the basics of how to block web sites from using cookies, and also how to allow specific sites to use them when needed. This chapter goes into more detail about how to use Cookie Manager to view individual cookies, remove cookies, and other functions.
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In this section: Specifying How (and if) Cookies Are Accepted
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The default setting for whether you want Netscape Browser to accept cookies is determined on the Site Controls panel. You can set the default behaviour for each trust level. For example, you can allow cookies for sites you trust and not all allow them for sites you don't trust. You can access the Site Controls panel as follows:
For a description of how to do this, refer to Blocking Cookies. For more detailed information on cookie-related fields and buttons in the Privacy panel, refer to the help for cookie options.
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When you set your default cookie settings (as described in the previous section) this setting applies to all web sites that you visit. However, if you turn off all cookies, you will discover that many sites (such as financial institutions, shopping, and others) require that cookies be turned on before you can access the features on that site. In these situations, you can change your settings to allow cookies for those specific sites only.
There are three ways that you can control cookies on a site-by-site basis:
Another method for controlling cookies is to select the option "ask me every time" in the Privacy Panel (Cookies category):
If you select this option, Netscape Browser notifies you that a web site is asking to set a cookie. When you see such a warning, you can click Yes to allow or No to deny the cookie. You can also select the option for your browser to "Remember this decision." If you select "Remember this decision," you will not be warned the next time that site tries to set or modify a cookie, and your "yes" or "no" response will still be in effect.
If you want to change a remembered response later, use Cookie Manager to edit your list of automatically stored cookies. To stop automatically accepting from a site, remove the cookie in Cookie Manager and select the option "Don't allow sites that set removed cookies to set future cookies." For details, refer to Removing Cookies.
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To view detailed information about cookies:
For more information about the fields on this window, refer to Stored Cookies.
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Important: To remove cookies, follow the steps in this section. Do not try to edit the cookies file on your computer.
To remove one or more cookies from your computer:
Note: Even though you've removed the cookies now, you will re-acquire those same cookies the next time you return to those web sites. To prevent that from happening, select "Don't allow sites that set removed cookies to set future cookies". When this checkbox is selected, web sites for the cookies that you are removing are added to the list of sites whose cookies will automatically be rejected.
You must click OK for your changes to take effect.
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Managing Your
Online PasscardsMany web sites are secured, and they require you to type a user name and password before you can enter the site. For instance, personalized pages and web sites containing your financial information usually require you to log in. Depending on how many such sites you use, and how security-conscious you are, you may find that you have many different user names and passwords to memorize as you surf the web.
Netscape Browser refers to the user name and password that you use for a given site as a passcard. Passcard Manager is a feature of Netscape Browser that remembers your user names and passwords by storing them on your computer's hard disk, and then entering them for you automatically when you re-visit these sites. In addition to remembering your user names and passwords, Passcard Manager also includes security features to protect your passcards so that other people cannot access this information.
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In this section: Remembering User Names and Passwords Viewing and Updating Your Saved Passcards |
When you visit a web site for which you have saved a passcard, there are a number of ways that you can use it. For example, you can have Netscape Browser automatically fill in your user name and password, or you can have it fill in the information and then automatically submit it as well (though this option can be problematic if the web site always returns you to the sign-on screen when you sign off).
If you have multiple passcards for the same site, you can also have Netscape Browser display the message bar so that you can select the passcard that you want to use, as shown in the following figure:
From the message bar, you can then select the passcard that you want to use, and then click one of the buttons to enter and, optionally, submit your sign on information.
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By default, Passcard Manager is set to automatically save your login information (as described in Setting Default Behaviours for Passcard Manager). When you enter a user name and password for a site, Netscape Browser prompts you to save this information as a passcard.
To save the passcard, enter a descriptive name for it and click Yes. (The name that you enter is the name that Netscape Browser displays when you are viewing your list of saved passcards.) If you do not want to save the passcard for this site, click No.
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To view or update your saved passcards:
| Site: | The web site where this passcard was originally saved. |
| The next time I visit this site site: | Options for specifying whether you want Netscape Browser to automatically fill in and, optionally, submit the passcard. |
| Protect this Passcard using my Master Password: | Have Netscape Browser prompt you for your master password before entering your passcard information on a web-site. In addition, selecting this option requires you to enter your master password in order to save changes to the passcard on the Options window. (Note: Additional options for protecting your passcards appear on the Preferences tab in Passcard Manager.) |
| Set as the default for this site: | If you have more than one passcard for a web-site, clicking this button sets the currently selected passcard as the default for that site. (This button is disabled when there is only a single passcard for a site.) |
For more details on these fields, refer to the help for this window.
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The Preferences tab in Passcard Manager has various defaults, including:
Note: Each of these default settings are used when saving new passcards; however, you can modify settings for individual passcards.
Refer to the window help for more information on individual fields on this tab.
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If you are concerned about your passcards being available to other users of your computer, Netscape Browser includes a number of options to protect them, including:
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Saving and Auto-Filling
Form InformationMany web pages contain forms for you to fill out, such as order forms for online shopping, information databases, and so forth. Form information typically includes personal information about yourself such as your name, address, phone numbers, and so on. Rather than having to repeatedly enter this information on different web-sites, you can instead use Datacard Manager to enter your personal data in one place, and then have Netscape Browser automatically enter this information when you use a form on the web.
Netscape Browser refers to the form details for a particular site as a datacard. You can create different datacards with different purposes, for example:
Datacard Manager is a feature of Netscape Browser that remembers your user names and passwords by storing them on your computer's hard disk, and then entering them for you automatically when you re-visit these sites. In addition to remembering your user names and passwords, Passcard Manager also includes security features to protect your passcards so that other people cannot access this information.
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In this section: |
When you visit a web site that uses form information, there are a number of ways that you can have Netscape Browser use your saved form data. For example, you can have Netscape Browser automatically fill in the form, or you can have it fill in the information and then automatically submit it as well. If you have multiple forms, or if you want to review and update your form information prior to submitting it, you can also have Netscape Browser display the message bar so that you decide how to proceed:
From the message bar, you can then select the datacard that you want to use, and then click one of the buttons to enter and, optionally, submit your information.
If you have not already created a datacard, or you want to create a new one, ignore the message bar and simply fill in the information for the form. When you submit the form, Netscape Browser will prompt you to save the information as a datacard, as described in the following sections.
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There are two ways to create a datacard:
The following sections describe both methods.
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Rather than create datacards manually, it's generally easier to have Netscape Browser create them for you automatically as you surf. When you enter form data on a web site and then submit it, Netscape Browser displays a window prompting you to save the information as a datacard:
You can select the following options on this window:
| Update DataCard | If you have existing datacards (Netscape Browser comes pre-installed with a single blank datacard called "MyData"), select this option to update the information currently stored for that datacard with the information that you just entered on the web page. (If this is the first time you have created a datacard, you can use this option to add your personal information to the MyData datacard.) |
| Create another DataCard for this site | Select this option to save the form information as a datacard with a new name. Enter the name that you want to give to the datacard and click OK. Note: If the datacard includes private information, select Password Protect Sensitive Data. This will require you to enter a password if you ever want to use or update this datacard. |
| Ignore the new data | Select this option if, after filling in a form with a datacard, you have made changes to the the form data but do not want Netscape Browser to update your default datacard with the changed information. |
| Always ignore changes for this site | Select this option if you never want to save datacards for this site. |
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To review and update your datacards, select Tools>Options and then open the Forms panel. You use this panel to maintain your datacards and passcards.
Your current datacards are listed in the Datacards Saved list. To view or modify a datacard, select it in the list and then update it using the tabs on the right-side of the window. For more details, refer to the window help.
Notes:
Adding a New Datacard
To manually add a new datacard, simply click the Add button on the Details tab. Netscape Browser will prompt for a name for the datacard, and you can then enter the information for it manually on the different tabs.
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Your master password is a password used by Netscape Browser to secure access to the information that you save in your datacards and passcards. When you create a datacard or passcard, you can optionally specify that you want to secure it with a master passcard. If so, Netscape Browser will prompt you for your master password before using this information on a web site. Similarly, you will need to enter your master password whenever you want to modify protected information.
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The first time that you create or modify a passcard or datacard, and you indicate that you want to protect it with a master password, Netscape Browser displays a window for you to enter the password.
Enter your master password (you need to enter it twice to verify that you haven't made an error).
Note: The Password quality meter field gives a basic indication of how complex your password is, based on criteria such as the number and type of characters that you enter. For example, a password that is 10 characters long, and which includes both numbers and punctuation, will receive a full rating.
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If you forget your master password, you need to reset it and create another one. However, in resetting your password, Netscape Browser deletes all information that has been protected with that password! (If it didn't, anyone using your computer could access your information by simply resetting the password.)
To reset your password, simply click the Reset Master Password button on the Master Password tab. Netscape Browser displays a message warning you that it will delete all of your protected information: click OK to continue or Cancel to return.
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June, 2005
Copyright 1994-2005 Netscape Communications Corporation.