Site Preferences and Form & Search History don't delete upon closing the browser session, ignoring Privacy Settings
I take privacy and local storage of any private data very seriously and I've always set Firefox to delete all data other than "Saved Passwords" upon closing a browser session.
The last several Firefox versions, however, haven't been deleting "Site Preferences" and "Form & Search History" whereas the other fields seem to be properly deleted. Running CCleaner shows that the content-prefs.sqlite and permissions.sqlite (corresponding to "Site Preferences" and "Saved Form Information", respectively) have been propagating across multiple browser sessions. One might be tempted to think that perhaps CCleaner selects and deletes these files on a pro-forma basis regardless of their state. However, there is conclusive evidence that information is being saved across sessions when that particular information has specifically been selected to be deleted upon the closing of every session.
The particular information which I know is being saved is Bookmark preferences. In a fresh browser session after you've confirmed that all privacy data has definitely been deleted, typing the name of a site stored in your bookmarks in the address bar (when you have set the address bar to autofill from your bookmarks) will be history agnostic. What I mean by this is that if you have three bookmarks starting with the letter G - for example: gamespot, github, and google -, typing the letter G in the address bar will populate the autocomplete pulldown list with the three sites in alphabetical order. However, if you have repeatedly selected github and not the other two across several firefox sessions, this behavior changes. Now, as either Site Preferences or Saved Form Information is being saved across sessions, the pulldown list WILL NOT be history agnostic. Suddenly, github will appear as the first entry in the pulldown list upon typing the letter G, not the middle entry as alphabetical order dictates. Furthermore, running CCleaner after you experience this behavior corrects it; the pulldown list will once again be history agnostic and only ordered alphabetically.
This is the one bit of unwanted privacy behavior that I can confirm. I would greatly appreciate future Firefox versions correcting this and making certain that the chosen fields to be deleted between sessions are, in fact, actually deleted. I would also appreciate someone pointing me towards a trustworthy extension or userscript as a temporary relief. Thank you
Edit: CCleaner is deleting THREE files, not two as previously identified. It's after the deletion of these three files from the profile and none others that the unwanted behavior of remembering (at least) bookmark preferences is reset. The three files are: -content-prefs.sqlite -permissions.sqlite -formhistory.sqlite
Edit #2: It seems that two more files are modified but not deleted per the CCleaner operation: -signons.sqlite -places.sqlite It's likely that places.sqlite is the file storing the bookmark "Frecency" data. I manually deleted the three files previously mentioned between firefox sessions without using CCleaner. The bookmark frecency behavior still persisted between sessions, allowing me to rule out content-prefs, permissions and formhistory as the root causes of bookmark frecency.
Though I can see how bookmark frecency can be treated as a better-usability feature, I believe that it's privacy related and should also be under user control. Something for future Firefox versions...
Modified by bolcrom
All Replies (10)
hello bolcrom, if you want to have that behaviour, please set firefox to "never remember history" in the options > privacy panel (=run in permanent private browsing mode).
These categories are all very distinct from one another.
- Site Preferences: this includes things such as the last zoom level for a site, allowed and blocked plugins, and cookie permissions. So a rough test would be to Ctrl+ several times on some sites, and use the Page Info dialog to modify some permissions, then exit Firefox and then start up again and check whether Firefox still remembers those preferences. You can set permissions for the current site by clicking the padlock or globe icon in the address bar, then More Information, then Permissions. Is Firefox flushing this data or not in your test?
- Form and Search History: these entries appear in a drop-down below the applicable form field, so you would know immediately whether Firefox is retaining them.
- Location Bar Auto-suggest: This requires further investigation to see whether clearing "Browsing History" clears or doesn't clear the previously computed "frecency" (frequency + recency) of site visits for a bookmarked site. You can use the SQLite Manager extension to inspect the places.sqlite database, so that is what I will use when I get a chance (maybe tonight).
Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
@jscher2000: the auto-suggest data for the location bar is stored in the moz_inputhistory table within places.sqlite - it isn't getting deleted with either clearing site preferences or form/search histroy on shutdown...
Thank you for the quick reply. However, I believe it's incorrect.
I had previously identified two files that were being deleted which ultimately resulted in the unwanted behavior of remembering bookmark preferences being corrected. It turns out that there is a third file from the profile that's also being deleted, but that file isn't places.sqlite.
As the original question has been been edited, the three files are: -content-prefs.sqlite -permissions.sqlite -formhistory.sqlite
So, the bookmark preference information is stored within one of these
Thank you for the quick reply. However "Never Remember History" is no-go solution for me. I rely on the internal password manager which is set to not collect new passwords in that mode. I segregate trivial user/pass for trivial sites like these and those for high security sites with the use of the internal manager and lastpass. There are also a few other minor drawbacks to that mode which, in effect, make it a pass for me.
I feel that as i have selected all fields other than "Saved Passwords" to be cleared upon closing the browser, then this is the behavior I should expect. As that certainly isn't the case currently, Firefox should grant us further fields to select or tell us exactly which data is retained session to session.
Again, thanks for the quick reply.
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, Site Preferences are being cleared re: zoom levels and permissions.
I originally wanted to indicate which files had to be deleted to reset the unwanted behavior of remembering bookmark preferences. Earlier, I failed to identify a third file formhistory.sqlite which was also being deleted and I've edited the original problem summary to reflect that. It's only after deleting these three files that the unwanted behavior is reset.
Thanks for the sqlite extention suggestion. I'll try to give it a go tonight.
Maybe modify the bonus frecency parameters.
See:
Did you confirm the effect by manually deleting those 3 files and not allowing CCleaner to modify anything else? I'm skeptical because:
My content-prefs.sqlite file appears to store only 4 kinds of site-specific preferences:
- zoom level
- last download directory
- last upload directory
- spell-check language
My permissions.sqlite file appears to store these categories of site permissions:
- cookies (allow/allow for session/block)
- popups (allow/block)
- STS (requirement to use only HTTPS)
- uitour (? I think related to Firefox 29)
My formhistory.sqlite file stores entries I've made in Firefox's search bar and various website forms. However I don't think this is related to the location bar.
Perhaps what is happening is that CCleaner is modifying places.sqlite in a manner that is invisible from simple inspection of the file system. Certainly it can't completely delete that file since it contains your bookmarks, so it must be able to make internal changes in order to remove browsing and download history.
Yes. You're right. Two files were being modified but not deleted: -signons.sqlite -places.sqlite
I looked at the "Date Modified" information after closing a firefox session and took a screepcap in descending order. Gave it a few minutes and then ran CCleaner. As expected, the three files previously mentioned were deleted. The Date Modified entry only changed to reflect the CCleaner operation for the preceding two files.
Someone earlier also suggested places.sqlite and the particular line which might be at play here. I too easily dismissed it earlier. Apologies to philipp.
Thanks to both jscher2000 and philipp for isolating the cause. It remains to be remedied, though. I think there's a good argument to be made that bookmark frecency improves usability. However, I find that it crosses pretty easily into the privacy arena and would prefer it to be under user control as well. Any suggestions?
I'll edit the original question with the new information.
You could take a look at cor-el's reply regarding how Firefox computes frecency. You may be able to make the behavior "not count" as a way to neutralize it. However, I haven't explored which of the many "weights" is/are the one(s) to modify.