Gmail password security problem??



Hrm... If you use Gmail and access your e-mails on a shared computer, you may be exposing yourself a little more than you'd wish. I just noticed this weekend that on a shared computer, if I typed in a random letter in the Gmail log in box, entire e-mail addresses would pop up, as well as the passwords (in the form of ****** etc).

After that it was easy to access other people's e-mail accounts. Of course I'm such a saint that I didn't actually read anyone's private e-mail, but you get the picture. Has anyone else noticed this?

On Hotmail, this privacy problem is possible to avoid, because they offer a third log in option. You can choose to "Always ask for my e-mail address and password". This is the only safe option if you use a shared computer, such as an office PC or a regular Internet Cafe PC.

I have no idea if this is a problem others have encountered as well, but it seems consumers using Gmail should demand that Google immediately fix this problem by offering the same safe log-in option that Hotmail has.

Comments

Jaradcel said…
If you're using a shared computer, what COULD have happened is that someone had hit the "remember passwords for this site" that both IE and Firefox now come loaded with by default. This results in what you saw.

Simply remembering to logout, and then clear the cache of passwords under options, will remedy the situation.
2:30 am, May 30, 2007
Pandabonium said…
Wow. I haven't used a shared computer in a while, good to know for future reference.
7:15 am, May 30, 2007
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