558744 - Site Preferences vs Clear Browsing History

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 573176

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[James Niesewand]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

I had a problem viewing a site (popups didn't work) and - despite Clearing Recent History - the problem continued up until the time I reset my zoom level.

This isn't the issue.  The issue is that, fundamentally, a "Clear Recent History" option should actually clear your recent history, shouldn't it?

If Firefox is keeping a list of "Site Preferences" and Zoom Levels against a domain list (unchecked on the clear recent history menu) by default, then isn't it a huge breach of the implicit understanding by users that "Clear Browsing & Download History" should actually do that? 

For the avoidance of doubt, when you:

    * go into "Tools"
    * select "Clear Recent History"
    * ensure the "Browsing & Download History" button is checked, and
    * press the "Clear Now" button... 

in Firefox it seems you are NOT actually clearing your entire browsing history, as it is being stored at a domain level elsewhere (in the site preferences list) and saved.

So, I've cleared the list of the actual pages I've looked at, but not the list of the sites I've been to.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to a website
2. Zoom in or out using the browser zoom function
3. Go into "Tools"
4. Select "Clear Recent History"
5. Ensure that "Browsing & Download History" button is checked
6. Press "Clear Now" button
7. Wait for Firefox to clear your Browsing history
8. Go back to the website in step 1
Actual Results:  
Marvel at how Firefox has not, actually, cleared your entire browsing history and remembers which domains you've been to and what your preferences were.

Expected Results:  
That Firefox actually clears the Browsing History when you select "Browsing & Download History" and press "Clear Now", rather than clearing out parts of your browsing history but keeping the history of all the domains you've visited stored elsewhere, in the site preferences data - data that can be cleared if you force Firefox to, but that is actually unchecked by default.

Actually do what it says it's going to do.

"Clear Browsing & Download History" means "forget where I've been and what I've been looking at".  It does not mean "selectively choose what to forget and what not to forget".

Personally I think this is a serious - and fairly major - issue.  People *believe* that when they clear their history, it should actually be cleared, gone, disappeared, vanished; not selectively cleared and selectively remembered.

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

In the clear recent history box there is also a site preferences checkbox. That should take care of it.

Comment 2

[Jo Hermans]

Clearing history is clearing the URL's that you have visited in the past. It's not clearing *your* history (as a way to erase all your private information), if you get the semantics. You can choose (and save) what part of the data you want to erase. If you want to erase all information, tick all the boxes.

Comment 3

[James Niesewand]

Hi Jo, Tyler,

Yes, I understand that there's a "Site Preferences" checkbox and that clears it if you check it; plus I do understand the semantics.

However, from a pure user perspective I can assure you that "Clear Browsing & Download History" is understood as "clear out my history", *not* "Clear Site Preferences".  

By all means change the wording of "Site Preferences" to read "Site Preferences and All Visited Sites History", or even add a new item called "Clear All Private Information" that does both, but it's definitely not intuitive that you need to check "Clear Site Preferences" to clear your private information.

Comment 4

[Jo Hermans]

If I set a zoom-level for a specific website, I don't consider that history. The same with cookies. What you really want is a "forget everything about this site" function. 

Duping this to bug 573176, which has a new design that should make it easier to do this, or to selectively delete some information while leaving others (say, delete history + cookies, while leaving site preferences).