Where are my shopping carts

[Micky]

Where are the contents of my contents of my shopping carts?

Most often, I put something in a cart in order to find out the
shipping charge, although sometimes even that is not enough. They
want full payment and shipping information to tell you what the
shipping is. Usually I quit then.

Either way, my cart has an entry and is that entry in my own computer
cookies, or is it on their computer.

I don't want to leave junk on their computers that will stay there for
years.

I don't mind leaving cookies on my computer, because they are small.
And if somehow I went back to the site, they could remind me of
something I was once thinking of buying, even if I didnt'.

I know that Amazon's cart and wish lists are on their computer,
because I can see them from any computer. And Skypes phone
directory is the same, but Skype is a different sort of beast. But
what about all the others? Are any, quite a few, almost all on my
computer?

Thanks.

[Wolf K.]

Good question. This is how I understand it:

While you are shopping, the web page is partly in a buffer and partly in
the cache. When you exit/close tab/log off, the contents of the buffer
are flushed or overwritten by the next page's contents. The cache may be
flushed when you exit Firefox, depends on your settings. The cache
obviates the need to reload page data when you move to another tab or page.

What remains on the vendor's server? I think it varies, seems to depend
on local privacy laws + vendor's security policies. Eg, although several
vendor's purchase pages here offer to fill in name and address, they
don't have the credit card number. They'll surely have most of your
log-on profile, and a record of what you've bought or looked at.

Firefox also keeps a record of your passwords, which you can
view/extract with suitable utilities.

But the above is certainly incomplete.

--
Best,
Wolf K.
kirkwood40.blogspot.ca

[Big Al]

I find the sites that store cart info on their servers, especially when
you login as a user like Amazon, then I have to open the cart and remove
things (all). I've come back to sites to buy something and picked one
item for $5 and find the cart says $48.32 and after looking see another
item for $43.32 I put in the cart. OOPS. I hate that! :-)

[Paul in Houston, TX]

Micky wrote:
> Where are the contents of my contents of my shopping carts?

RAM and Cache. My hdd cache is set to zero. When I exit SM/FF it all
goes away.

> Most often, I put something in a cart in order to find out the
> shipping charge, although sometimes even that is not enough. They
> want full payment and shipping information to tell you what the
> shipping is. Usually I quit then.

I always use fake everything until I am ready to buy.
I don't like giving out real life info unless necessary.

> Either way, my cart has an entry and is that entry in my own computer
> cookies, or is it on their computer.
>
> I don't want to leave junk on their computers that will stay there for
> years.
>
> I don't mind leaving cookies on my computer, because they are small.
> And if somehow I went back to the site, they could remind me of
> something I was once thinking of buying, even if I didnt'.

I don't save cookies. They are set for session. Don't need snoops.

> I know that Amazon's cart and wish lists are on their computer,
> because I can see them from any computer. And Skypes phone
> directory is the same, but Skype is a different sort of beast. But
> what about all the others? Are any, quite a few, almost all on my
> computer?

If you use hdd caches and don't empty them then you are being tracked.
I don't like being tracked... even if it is benign.