Autofill suggest ancient email

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Opera: up to date
Windows 10: up to date

Issue:
Today, when I wanted to log in to facebook, the username field suggested 3 email addresses with freemailers that have been closed over 10 years ago. It also suggested two email addresses from a company I was with from 2001 until 2003, so those email adresses have been discontinued 15 years ago.

I always thought these autofill suggestions are browser-side, not website-side.

Can anyone explain, how this may happen?

[sgunhouse]

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Opera can only suggest things it has seen you use; Facebook is another matter.

[A Former User]

A Former User @sgunhouse last edited by A Former User

@sgunhouse Can autofill suggestions actually be controlled by the website, facebook in this case?

Edit: I opened my facebook account years after the email adress was discontinued and the suggestion popped up today for the first time.

[sgunhouse]

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Some websites do remember and autofill form fields - if you ever have a website suggest something that was used in a different browser you know that had to be the site and not Opera. Though we still have no idea where either got those addresses from ...

[A Former User]

A Former User @sgunhouse last edited by

@sgunhouse So I will have to take the matter to facebook?

I used other browsers on another machine to test it and the autofill at facebook doesn't list those adresses, but another one I am not using for facebook. So I assume it may be information stored on that particular computer.

Is there a way to read out the actual information stored in cookies in opera?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

Are those logins stored in the passwords manager?

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by

@leocg I have never even typed those email adresses on the computer, let alone used them to log in anywhere, using them as usernames.

I have checked the saved passwords in opera nonetheless, there is nothing there.

Two of the freemail adresses are totally nondescript, i.e. not containing my name, they have been cancelled 10 years ago (my computer is younger than that).

The two work email adresses, which have been discontinued 15 years ago, list my surname only, a surname I have changed 13 years ago. Information about that employer has not been entered on facebook.

Google search doesn't bring up anything that would suggest freely available (and current) data has been used.

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by

@leocg I have located the file, where the email adresses are stored.

The file name is "Web Data" and its location is:
"C:\Users*_*\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable".

(The file lists my instagram password in plain text, for some reason.)

Can anyone tell me how to make sense of the content of this document?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

Web Data is where things like typed email addresses, custom search engines, among others are stored.

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by

@leocg So, the verdict is that I must have typed those adresses (altthough I have no recollection of it) between now and 2015 (when the file was created), and somehow this information has now suddenly been pulled up, from one day to the next.

Thank you, I guess this is about it.

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@tbrem The only thing of concern is the inclusion of my Instagram password as plain text in the "Web Data" file. Why would that happen?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

In which field it's stored? Maybe you've typed it in an insecure field at some point?

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

You should be able to clear the autofill data by going to the URL chrome://settings/autofill and then clicking the 3 dots to the right of each entry to edit or remove. (I see you already found your stored passwords at chrome://settings/passwords.)

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by A Former User

@leocg Hm, how would I know ...
In the file, it says Password and then my password follows. (There are some weird characters around that, of course.)

Clearing the data was no problem, thank you all.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

I thought you may had seen it when you found your data in that file.