Please forget you knew my name

February 10, 2007 5:19 PM

I don't like that Firefox knows my credit card number. How do I make it forget and not relearn this information?

When I buy things online Firefox often will try to "help me" by remembering the form information. It offers what it thinks I might be typing beneath the form cell. This is really handy many times, but it is also remembering my credit card number. That bugs me. Other people use my computer sometimes, and while I trust them, I don't want them being offered the option of my credit card number if they buy something.

Using a toolbar I can have my name, address, etc entered with the click of a button. So really I don't need Firefox to help me in this way. So how do I turn it off? I see the option in Firefox to clear "saved form information" but how do I stop it from re-learning this information?

posted by aburd to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: Tools > Options > Privacy

Uncheck the "remember what I type in forms" box.
posted by Phire at 5:22 PM on February 10, 2007

Best answer: Assuming you're using Firefox 2.0, go into Tools > Options and click the privacy tab. There's a "Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar" option to be unchecked.
posted by matthewr at 5:22 PM on February 10, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks people. That was easy.
posted by aburd at 5:24 PM on February 10, 2007

Now that you've turned off global, automatic form filling, you may be able to get back the function of remembering certain things you're ok with by using this add-on. I haven't tested it, but it appears to allow you to remember specific bits of information (like name, address, etc.) and fill them in for you.
posted by Dave Faris at 5:34 PM on February 10, 2007

The above steps will prevent it from learning new stuff, but to be extra sure you probably want to clear the existing data. Go to Tools > Clear Private Data and check "Saved form and search history" and "saved passwords" then hit the button.
posted by breath at 11:27 PM on February 10, 2007

Alternatively, you can have Firefox encrypt your private data and only unlock it after you type in a password.
posted by wierdo at 1:06 AM on February 11, 2007

Another quick tip is to use Shift-Delete, which will remove any specific previously held data from a form input field. You can also arrow up and down on the list that appears when you type in a field, and Shift-Delete the entries you want Firefox to forget.
posted by davem at 4:31 AM on February 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

There is an extension that gives you a menu when you shut down the client with options for what you want to delete.

I don't have the name because I use it at work. Will update later...
posted by tomw at 11:24 PM on February 12, 2007