Covering your tracks
By fluffysue
@fluffysue (1482)
United States
April 2, 2009 9:32am CST
I forgot that I had borrowed my mother's computer a few times recently (we live in the same house), and then yesterday she was looking for a book online and she says to me, "Hey I'm on Amazon and it says "Susan"". Now let's just say I have ALL kinds of things in my cart on amazon, I save a lot to keep track of prices and buy when I want to. And if you go to the cart, it will say right at the top when prices change, and what the item is. Never mind what I have in the cart, use your imagination, Amazon sells EVERYTHING...suffice to say I did not want Mom to see. 
So I ran over really fast and logged out, using the excuse that I had been shopping for Christmas presents (no one who knows me would believe I've already started that! lol). But this had me thinking about the importance of logging out if you use a computer someone else uses. I usually forget, especially if it is someone in the family, but am more careful if I use a public or work computer.
Have you ever had an experience where you forgot to log out? Did you ever wonder what would happen if someone stole your computer and you were still logged in to everything?
So I ran over really fast and logged out, using the excuse that I had been shopping for Christmas presents (no one who knows me would believe I've already started that! lol). But this had me thinking about the importance of logging out if you use a computer someone else uses. I usually forget, especially if it is someone in the family, but am more careful if I use a public or work computer.
Have you ever had an experience where you forgot to log out? Did you ever wonder what would happen if someone stole your computer and you were still logged in to everything?4 responses
@fluffysue (1482)
• United States
2 Apr 09
That is a good idea. I'm lazy and bad at remembering passwords and such, so I have everything set for the greatest convenience, but it can compromise privacy.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
4 Apr 09
wow. i never thought about that. hope no one ever steals mine. i should start logging out i suppose. when i lived at my daughters, before i got my new one a few years back, i had to use hers for a while but there was really nothing i worried about her seeing. oh well, one time i was in her yahoo account mail and deleted a couple emails that i didnt recognise the sender before i realised it was hers!
i never told her and luckily they werent important
. that is bad, i know.
i never told her and luckily they werent important. that is bad, i know.
@Ozarkgirl (774)
• United States
2 Apr 09
My settings on my computer is set to log me out if my computer idles for more then 5 minutes. Even if I have the internet open and multiply pages, it will still log me out if the mouse or keys are not hit for five minutes of longer. My computer has eveything on it including my journal.
