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Hi All!
Basically, my question is how a web site remembers what you did last visit and figures out your name if no personal data is entered & history and cache are cleared.
The Details-
While doing my "favorite" task this time of year (comparing health insurance plans), I stopped at Humana's web site and looked at some plans. Later in the session, I stopped at some other vendors' web sites & explored plans from each.
At the end of the session I did my usual practice in Safari: A) Close All Tabs Except One B) Send that page to my home page, which is "About:Blank" C) Clicked "History" and chose "Clear History". D) Clicked "Develop" and "Empty Cache". E) Closed Safari. If I have been at private sites, such as banking, I'll also open Terminal and type "dscacheutil -flushcache". I did the above steps, without Flushcache after the session when I visited Humana.
Yikes!! ...
Days later, I went back to Humana and it said "Welcome Paul. Here are your last viewed plans" (or words to that effect). I was surprised and shocked that they knew me and the stuff I looked at last time.
(It picked my zip code as the one where the ISP's dish farm is located the first time I visited, but I'd imagine it got that from figuring out where the ip address is entering the internet. Lots of sites seem to do that part.)
I'm absolutely positive that I cleared history & cache after the first visit. That habit is in my DNA.
I also know that I did flushcache later that day, after moving around (lots of) money to the checking account so I could pay for health insurance. (An American tradition!) The computer had been restarted several times between Humana visits.
I don't have accounts with, nor have I ever visited, Facebook, Twitter or any social media sites. The closest I come is that I have A Google account & and Apple ID. Only my phone's Contacts list & e-mail are on Google and I've never used the Apple ID's associated iCloud (or whatever it si called these days). SO Humana didn't use any of these to back-door my information.
I know that I did not enter any personal information during my Humana visit. Today- many days later- Humana still knows me and what I viewed both times that I visited.
I'm using Safari 11.1.2, OS X 10.11.6 on a MacBook pro from 2006. The router and modem both have firewalls and my OS X firewall is on.
I tried looking quite a bit on line for how this invasion of privacy happens, but came up empty.
Q? ...
How in the world did Humana not only remember what I viewed, but figure out my name? How can I plug this "leak"?
The name figuring out isn't so bothering (I think), but how did it re-link this computer to my previous activity?
This is unsettling stuff, indeed.
Thanks For Educating me on this interesting mystery.
Enjoy This Day!
Paul
Basically, my question is how a web site remembers what you did last visit and figures out your name if no personal data is entered & history and cache are cleared.
The Details-
While doing my "favorite" task this time of year (comparing health insurance plans), I stopped at Humana's web site and looked at some plans. Later in the session, I stopped at some other vendors' web sites & explored plans from each.
At the end of the session I did my usual practice in Safari: A) Close All Tabs Except One B) Send that page to my home page, which is "About:Blank" C) Clicked "History" and chose "Clear History". D) Clicked "Develop" and "Empty Cache". E) Closed Safari. If I have been at private sites, such as banking, I'll also open Terminal and type "dscacheutil -flushcache". I did the above steps, without Flushcache after the session when I visited Humana.
Yikes!! ...
Days later, I went back to Humana and it said "Welcome Paul. Here are your last viewed plans" (or words to that effect). I was surprised and shocked that they knew me and the stuff I looked at last time.
(It picked my zip code as the one where the ISP's dish farm is located the first time I visited, but I'd imagine it got that from figuring out where the ip address is entering the internet. Lots of sites seem to do that part.)
I'm absolutely positive that I cleared history & cache after the first visit. That habit is in my DNA.
I also know that I did flushcache later that day, after moving around (lots of) money to the checking account so I could pay for health insurance. (An American tradition!) The computer had been restarted several times between Humana visits.
I don't have accounts with, nor have I ever visited, Facebook, Twitter or any social media sites. The closest I come is that I have A Google account & and Apple ID. Only my phone's Contacts list & e-mail are on Google and I've never used the Apple ID's associated iCloud (or whatever it si called these days). SO Humana didn't use any of these to back-door my information.
I know that I did not enter any personal information during my Humana visit. Today- many days later- Humana still knows me and what I viewed both times that I visited.
I'm using Safari 11.1.2, OS X 10.11.6 on a MacBook pro from 2006. The router and modem both have firewalls and my OS X firewall is on.
I tried looking quite a bit on line for how this invasion of privacy happens, but came up empty.
Q? ...
How in the world did Humana not only remember what I viewed, but figure out my name? How can I plug this "leak"?
The name figuring out isn't so bothering (I think), but how did it re-link this computer to my previous activity?
This is unsettling stuff, indeed.
Thanks For Educating me on this interesting mystery.
Enjoy This Day!
Paul
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