Browser & Credit Card Info
03-18-19: Browsers and Credit Card Information:
For many years both the VCC and Computers Plus (VCP) have recommended that our members, and everyone else for that matter, NOT ALLOW ANY BROWSER TO SAVE PASSWORDS OR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION, along with your name and address. The browsers that we currently recommend for default use are Firefox and Chrome.
Both browsers will provide for saving passwords, payment methods (i.e. credit card numbers), and address info. In both browsers these features are set to “ON” by default and the user is obligated to review the settings and decide exactly what info he/she wants these browsers to retain. Again, we vigorously recommend against the use of browser-controlled saving of passwords and payment methods (credit card info) in particular. Therefore, your options/settings need to be reviewed and modified as you see fit, with this recommendation in mind. In the “Settings” for Chrome you will notice that Chrome has a three-part section labeled “Autofill”, and it includes Passwords, Payment Methods and Addresses. The default setting for all three is “ON” and that means that at least Passwords and Payment Methods need to be turned to “OFF”. We also recommend turning Addresses “OFF”.
But this is not the end of it. Chrome appears to have taken things to another level. In the Chrome Advanced settings section under, “Privacy and Security” there is a line item that by default is set to “ON”. That line items states, “Allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved.” So, which sites can check if you have saved credit card info? We don’t know. Are credit card numbers (and passwords) encrypted or are they stored as plain text? We don’t know.
Recommendation:
Considering all that we do not know for certain, there is only one logical approach, and that is:
In addition to NOT allowing any browser to save password or credit card info, make certain that this Chrome Advanced “Privacy & Security” option is set to “OFF” as shown below. This is just in case a credit card number and/or password is saved to Chrome inadvertently.
The "Allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved" option should be set to "OFF".
This is what the ON setting looks like
This is what the OFF setting looks like
Shortly, a new element will be added to the “How To (Do Things)” segment in the “Self Help” tab on both the VCC and VCP websites. This element will provide details for changing privacy settings on all the major browsers.
Shortly, a new element will be added to the “How To (Do Things)” segment in the “Self Help” tab on both the VCC and VCP websites. This element will provide details for changing privacy settings on all the major browsers.