Facebook cookies question

fordmanchester

Hello

Just wondered if anyone had the answer to what may be a simple question.

I play games on the Facebook website, usually using Internet Explorer as a browser (version 8).

The other day I left the Facebook site quickly by just closing the IE browser, but without clicking Facebook's "log out" button beforehand, as I usually do.

A few hours later when I returned to the Facebook site, I was surprised to discover that I was still logged in there. The reason this surprised me was because I have IE set to "Delete temporary files, history, cookies, saved passwords and web information" on exit.

As an experiment, I used IE's option to manually delete browsing history as well, both before and after leaving the Facebook site (but again without clicking on Facebook's "log out" button). I then ran CCleaner's cleaning option which includes the deletion of temporary internet files, cookies, browsing history etc... yet still on opening a new browser window and returning to the Facebook site, I was still logged in there.

How is this possible please?

It's not an urgent question at all, but I just wondered how sites like Facebook (and probably others) are able to retain your details even though you have supposedly deleted cookies and temporary files etc. It seems that the only way to ensure you are definitely logged out is to click the "log out" button on the Facebook website. What are both Internet Explorer's "deletion of browsing history" option, and CCleaner's cleaning, missing?

Thank you in advance.

tronator

fordmanchester wrote: »

The other day I left the Facebook site quickly by just closing the IE browser, but without clicking Facebook's "log out" button beforehand, as I usually do.

A few hours later when I returned to the Facebook site, I was surprised to discover that I was still logged in there. The reason this surprised me was because I have IE set to "Delete temporary files, history, cookies, saved passwords and web information" on exit.

Firefox has an option to delete active logins too. Maybe there is such an option in IE as well. Or just try out Firefox. Don't worry, you can have more than one browser on your computer.

fordmanchester

Hello tronator and thank you for your reply.

I do have Firefox as well.

My question was really regarding what is making both IE's deletion of browsing history, and also CCleaner so ineffective in this?

But your point is taken. By all accounts Firefox is much more secure.