Ipad privacy question

[ineedmycoffee]

Hi, I can't check this right now but I really need to find out. If you log in to MN on an ipad and post something then log out again, can someone go back through the history on the ipad and access the logged in page, without having your log in details, IYSWIM? I am trying to work out how someone was able to log in as me and view the threads I started, when I am absolutely certain I had logged out.

TIA.

Does someone need to be logged into see your threads?

Someone can certainly pick up the iPad, look in Safari's history and then see the pages that you viewed, which would include threads that you have started and/or read.

When you log out your cookie is destroyed (technical term, innit), meaning your session can't in any way be recovered after that. But an enterprising so-and-so could in theory piece the story together from your browser history, if it goes something like Create thread page -> Thread with 1 post -> etc., it may have exposed you.

Also, if you have iCloud enabled on a Mac, bear in mind it has the feature of syncing history between devices, so perhaps your iPad's history has managed to wriggle into another Apple device? If so someone could do the same analysis and possibly see autocomplete info (i.e. your nickname) if that transferred too. Not really sure how iCloud works yet but it's a possibility I think.

"But an enterprising so-and-so could in theory piece the story together from your browser history"

It won't take much work, the pages will appear in the browsing history and clicking on one of them will reload it. If you've logged out then some of the pages might not load and appear as they did at the time but many of them will appear close enough to be perfectly readable. For example if someone views my history after I do this but log out then can click on it and come right here. What they won't be able to do is to come back here logged in as me, but they'll see this page.

So yes it's really rather easy to see what you've been getting up to if someone can access your history.

Have a look at your settings - under Safari, check to see whether Autofill is set to automatically fill in names and passwords. If it is, then when you log out and then go to log back in again, your email and password will automatically appear in the boxes and anyone can log in as you.

To avoid this, you will need to turn the names and passwords setting off. You can also turn on Private browsing and clear your history and/or cookies in this section. I think the auto fill is on by default, because I don't remember turning it on, and it was on on my iPad.