I still don’t understand the requirement that the account itself remain secret. What exactly would the consequences be if the existance of the account is public? Everyone I know has a private email account, or several. This is not suspicious behavior.
I can’t believe that a woman who just wants to email her new boyfriend would need to keep the mere existance of a private email account secret…from her CHILDREN.
I agree. I would guess that the original poster told a little fib about the real reason for the request to avoid starting a flame war.
My last post wasn’t terribly clear. I’d agree, keeping the account secret shouldn’t be a big deal itself, but what i was trying to say is that those temporary files actually allow people to see your email messages. They don’t need to be too techno savvy, just aware of the presence of the temp files folder and mildy curious is enough.
Sure.
“Children may” be smart enough to figure that out, but do they give a shit?
Adults checking other adults on that are already suspicious and all they’re going to hide there is evidence for the divorce settlement.
-Joe
can somebody explain this to me?
I have a junk email account at Yahoo, which I only use for silly stuff*. But I always assumed that, while the account may be public knowledge, the email messages are private.
I thought that whatever messsages I type or receive there are stored on the computer at Yahoo, not on my home computer (which is why I can read them from a computer anywhere in the world).
And the only person who can read those messages is someone who knows my password for entering the yahoo mail site, right? (I’m talking about normal, everyday access, from people like me who might be using my computer. I am not trying to hide secrets from the CIA .)
I know that yahoo leaves cookies on my computer, but I don’t care. I’m not trying to hide the fact that I have a junk email address. But are the contents of the email messages readable by other people?
*( like commercial sites that I’m afraid will spam me, or those irritating sites that are free but insist on a registration process. Why does the nytimes want to know my name and profession?)
When you view webpages most browsers store these web pages locally somewhere on your disk. This is generally called the browser cache or temporary internet files or some such name. There are settings on most browsers about how big this collection of temporary files can get and how long to keep them around. You can open these files in your browser and see what you were looking at previously.
**gazpacho ** pretty much covered it but to more fully address your question chappachula…
You are right, the email messages from webmail accounts are not stored on your computer in the way they would be for pop (i.e. outlook) type accounts. They are stored on the webmail account provider’s servers as you say. However, in order to view these message you create a web page much like any other web page. And as noted already, web pages are stored in a local cache.
So, if you go into your temp files folder you will find the web page that was created/viewed when you read your message. Now, on the outer limits of my technical knowledge here, web designers can code pages so they ‘expire’ - you’ll see this most commonly or things like online banking pages, order forms and such like - and they’ll do this (or something similar) for web mail pages. Last time i tried this, the page only appeared for a second or two before the ‘not available offline’ type message came up instead. But that couple of seconds would be enough to get an idea of what the contents of the message was.
‘May’ be smart enough - almost certain if they are 10 or over.
‘Do they give a shit?’ - Ummm, have you ever met a child? 
Kids are incredibly nosy!
Not if they get ahold of the operating system disks.
I don’t think this applies to safari.
Also: how is the computer connected to the internet?
No idea about safari.
You don’t even need to be connected at all, once the pages are cached they can be viewed offfline.
Yeah, but if the computer is connected through a router or similar suspicious middle aged children with balding hair and beer guts can intercept the traffic and know something’s going on. Alternatively they could install packets sniffers (there may well already be one in mac os x built in) or a silent proxy on the computer, and the OP’s “friend” will not realise what is going on.
Safari has a cache for things just like every other modern browser.
But wouldn’t a key logger still pick that up?
Or, one could just troll for some MILF ass from work, instead.
-Joe
Jeez forget about the password sniffers, and keyloggers and screen capturers. This women does not work for the CIA and neither do her kids.
I meant safari in secret mode.
It’s very easy to install a screen capturer.
Really? find me a free one that her kids could install themselves. There is such a thing as being to careful
Kids don’t have any money?