Can people get your password? Can they get the information from that site? Does the site automatically sign you out? Thanks in advance.
As a former system security officer for a very high traffic and billion + dollar traffic computer system, I have to say that after a certain amount of time the system will automatically log you out. I had it set for 15 minutes of activity equalled a system boot that would automatically take you to the login screen. If the site is really secure they should have something similar in the process. Also, you should never see your password when you type it in the password field (other than blank characters such as *******). Another user shouldn’t be able to get your password either unless they also had your correct contact information and a way to get into it (such as mother’s maiden name and the email address that the address will be sent to in addition to the password to read said email address).
If however, you didn’t log out of the system and Joe Scumbag comes around and decides to play through the PC that you were on, you are out of luck. You could possibly be liable for the misuse of the system depending on the terms of the contract that you agreed to in order to be supplied access. And any sorts of bad things along those lines. Typically fiscal responsibility only comes into play when money is involved and there is blatant disregard for the end user licensing agreement. The Joe Scumbug in the above example could also possibly fall under the malicious hacker law under The Privacy Act (1975 or 86? 99?) and also be fined up to around $5K for each piece of information he viewed.
Obviously, if the perp is using the same computer that is one thing but I assume the OP refers to another computer and, in that case you should be quite safe.
When you are using secure (encrypted) connection the information exchanged cannot be seen by others on the NET so, even if you did not sign off you should be safe, except, as has been said for someone coming and using your own computer.
Just to be on the safe side I never use any computer other than my own to access anything confidential because you just don’t know what you are dealing with. When I travel I use my laptop. I would never use a public computer for anything confidential.
The next user of the PC can do certain things. E.g., if it was a shopping site, they might be able to see what you have bought from the site, order stuff on your card (shipping address is an issue), etc. But not all sites are alike. Some might allow them to get your credit card info and such.
As for passwords, here’s what they might do: change the user profile to a temp email address. Log out, try to log back in, click on the “forgot your password link”. Most sites will email your password to the profile’s email address. Presto, they have your password.
But keep in mind that all this requires access to your PC. This means hands-on or remotely if you are running software like PCAnywhere. (The latter type should be avoided unless you really know what you’re doing.)
Just quiting the email program/browser/whatever should be good enough for most sites, but I don’t trust them and would logout and then close the program.
OTOH, I would never do anything that requires any security (esp. things like credit cards, passwords) on any machine that wasn’t mine. Key logging programs and such can easily snoop all this.
Yes, I was refering to someone getting info with a remote machine. I’m not too worried about anyone in the house getting their hands on my balance. I forgot to log out of my checking account and just closed the window instead.