When I SYNC, my bookmarks are still on a work computer, even though I've closed out of Firefox. NO ONE wants their bookmarks to stay around at work.
So, the reason I decided to try Firefox Sync is that I recently discovered that when I sign out of my Google Account, it turns out that my bookmarks were still all there on Chrome on multiple different work computers (I'm an independent contractor & work at many unrelated locations, so clearly, this was a serious security problem with Chrome & they had no way to help it. None. Whatsoever. And it was happening to other users, probably unknowingly)
So, I used Firefox Sync today with a work computer & yep, when I clicked the red EXIT FIREFOX button in the settings, & then reopened Firefox to check, there were all my bookmarks. I do not see a LOGOUT option for SYNC. Just a Delete my account or change my password option under Manage Account or a DISCONNECT option under Options. The Disconnect popup says this: "Firefox will stop syncing with your account, but won’t delete any of your browsing data on this computer." So, I didn't use the DISCONNECT or DELETE MY ACCOUNT options because when I tried the disconnect option on Chrome, it deleted most, but not all of the bookmarks on ALL of my devices & I would've lost all hundreds of my bookmarks had I not made a copy of them from my non-logged-in tablet.
NO ONE wants their bookmarks available to anyone else who opens the browser on the same computer just because they synced once w/ their Firefox account or logged into their Google account. If there is NO way to log out & remove the USER-SPECIFIC--NOT device- or browser-specific-- bookmarks & other potentially problematic info, then this should be made CLEAR in an informative article if someone chooses to SYNC.
No one would ever SYNC if they ever used a computer that is not their own if they knew that their bookmark info were left on the browser.
Is there a SYNC logout option that I missed that makes this question irrelevant? I hope so. Otherwise, I guess I'll be emailing a bookmarks file to myself for temporary work use & then deleting it.
If I sign in to Yahoo! or Facebook or any shopping site, etc, when I logout & clear the cache & cookies, etc, like I always do, my info is gone. It doesn't show up the next time someone opens the browser.
I even changed the settings in SYNC to NOT synce the bookmarks, but they were still there when I reopened Firefox.
thanks.
Christine
All Replies (7)
You can disconnect from Sync if you no longer want to use it. You can also disable syncing bookmarks via the Sync options if there is stil other data that you want to Sync. You can possibly backup the bookmarks to an HTML file and save that file to an USB stick of use the portable Firefox version to have your bookmark with you all the time.
Sync is not intended to be used in the manner you are using it; i.e. on devices that you don't own or have exclusive use of.
My suggestion is to carry a USB Flash Stick with your bookmarks in a bookmarks.html file, which can be opened in any web browser, just like viewing a webpage. You can use File > Open File ... to open your bookmarks.html file quite easily.
Or, if you are using Windows based devices, think about carrying your own Firefox Portable installation on a USB Flash Stick. http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
I disconnected from SYNC on the work computer this AM, closed Firefox & reopened it & the bookmarks were still there, even though I had told SYNC not to sync them. So I exported & saved them to another file & I deleted them by hand, just as I had to do with my Chrome account
As for using the SYNC feature not how it was intended, just as with Chrome, one gets the false idea that when you logout of your account in Chrome or close the browser in Firefox, that your info is not there.
Chrome even gives you all sorts of info about how to clear your cache & safely use public computers, all the while failing to mention that if you've linked your account to the browser, your bookmarks are there for all to see even when you sign out & close the browser.
This syncing of personal bookmarks to the browser & not to a user account is the problem.
Many people need access to their bookmarks at work & the solution from the browser companies is to tell people to carry around a bookmarks file on a jumpdrive & open them from that file.... seems like someone could innovate a proper solution, eh Firefox?????
And, if I'm going to carry around my bookmarks file on a flashdrive, why would I ever need to use SYNC-- I could just transfer them between my tablet PC & desktop via the flash drive....
I thought common sense would have made this obvious. Sync for Firefox and Chrome both synchronize data between systems. However, they aren't designed to delete data. The option simply exists to give the same data to each device connected to it. When you disconnect a Sync account, all it does is stop updating to or from that device, and it's up to the user to clear the history.
To make things easier, try installing Firefox on a USB flash drive.
Actually, it's not obvious & common sense would dictate that users' bookmarks would not be left stuck to random computers even once they've logged out of the account. No one wants that if it's a public work computer or if they're traveling & use an Internet cafe. As I am not the only one who has noticed this issue or had bookmarks disappear/be deleted, in addition, common sense would indicate it's not really a very good system. And carrying around a flashdrive to run Firefox off of it is a good solution? Really? Just curious why a useful feature such as being able to login & use your preferences & bookmarks & then logging out removes your preferences when you're gone hasn't been developed. Yahoo keeps my preferences when I logout (it's called My Yahoo!). Maybe a My Firefox or My Chrome solution could be developed.
As I indicated on the 5th, your expectations about how Sync is to be used and how it functions is a bit convoluted. You shouldn't be using Sync on computers that aren't under your exclusive control. Common sense isn't all that common, I guess.
As far as MyYahoo - totally different service than Sync, your data is accessed and viewed from the "web" rather that being synchronized to each device.
As far as a "MyFirefox" feature, feel free to request it on the feedback page. https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback