Here is one for the Geekiest amonst us - Adobe Acrobat Reader

[Boomyal]

Something I recently noticed is that AAR creates a recently viewed .PDF file list that is accessible by either opening the program OR from within any PDF itself.. These might have been viewed while residing on your harddrive or they may have been viewed in the clouds, ie, a bank statement that you asked to see on the bank website but did not save to your harddrive.

In the case of the bank statements, as long as the bank keeps those PDF's available, anyone using your computer could easily access them. Additionally, whereas you needed a password to access that PDF from your Bank or Credit Card website, you do not need a password to open that file from the 'recently viewed' list as shown in AAR.


I have googled the prospect of deleting that recently viewed list and the best info I got was that Adobe did not have that capability.

IMHO, this is a real security issue. If you simply had a PDF stored in a folder somewhere, it would take someone a long time to find it and view it. But with the recently viewed list, that shows up when you open AAR, that is a no brainer.

Anyone know of a solution that I have missed finding?

 

[southkogs]

When you're seeing those files pop up in Reader's recently opened it's noting them from your internet cache or from your email clients attachment manager. Clear your history/cache, temporary internet files or downloads folder and they should go away.

If they are viewed on a password restricted site, it may lock you out (if you've signed off the site) of viewing the file even though it's showing in your recently viewed.

One more thing to try Boomer - there's a option on my version on the Mac in the preferences to clear "remembered information" in the security settings. I'm not sure where to find that on Reader (I've got Acrobat Pro) or if it's in there, but it's worth a look.

 

[Boomyal]

......If they are viewed on a password restricted site, it may lock you out (if you've signed off the site) of viewing the file even though it's showing in your recently viewed.,,,,,.

That is what I would have thought but I logged out of the credit card site, went back to 'recently viewed' and the PDF opened right up for the world to see. I looked in 'preferences' and under 'security' I found a 'clear remembered history' button. I will now have to check that out on Mrs B's computer.

However, it seemed like a one time clearing.

 

[southkogs]

I think (it's been a while) on a Windows machine there is a folder where downloaded files are stored - sort of like the cache. I think the name of it is something like "temporary internet files." It may be that the PDF is downloaded to that folder for Reader to access. If that's the case, the PDF is at least secure on your machine (theoretically). You could make a shortcut to that folder and dump it daily/weekly/whenever.

 

[bruceb58]

If this is on your home computer, why does it matter? Also, a bank statement has no real info a crook could use.

 

[Boomyal]

If this is on your home computer, why does it matter? Also, a bank statement has no real info a crook could use.

This is a home computer. Mrs B is paranoid if she takes the laptop in for work (monitor is acting up) that people would have access to too much information. I tried deleting temporary internet files and cookies but the viewed PDFs still show up when you open AAR.

 

[bruceb58]

If she is just bringing the computer in, connecting to the work internet and not doing any banking at work, there shouldn't be an issue if she doesn't have folders set for sharing and even then, it should recognize that she isn't on her home network and won't share anyway. No one will have access to her files on the computer unless she purposely makes them visible.

Load up this on your computer:
http://www.voidtools.com/

Put in the name of the file or just pdf and it will show you where every pdf on your computer is located. You can delete them if you want at that point.

What browser are you using?

 

[MTboatguy]

Just to be safe when viewing my statements from credit cards and banks, I always download the .pdf and save it to an external thumb drive that is only used for this purpose, that thumb drive never goes with the computer when I take it out of the house, it is designated as a home use only and it is also password protected, you can't even open a document without the password for the drive. Once I have saved the document on the thumbdrive and viewed the document, I take the thumb drive out and put it in my safe box with the rest of my important papers. Even if the document is listed in the documents folder on the state menu, you can't open anything back up without the password for the thumb drive.

By the way, none of my statements have the full account numbers on them, not the bank statements or the credit card statements, if your bank and credit card companies are not doing this, then you need to remind them that electronic transactions were covered under the law a couple of years ago that went into effect about showing full credit card numbers on transaction receipts.

 

[Boomyal]

If she is just bringing the computer in, connecting to the work internet and not doing any banking at work, there shouldn't be an issue if she doesn't have folders set for sharing and even then, it should recognize that she isn't on her home network and won't share anyway. No one will have access to her files on the computer unless she purposely makes them visible.

Load up this on your computer:
http://www.voidtools.com/

Put in the name of the file or just pdf and it will show you where every pdf on your computer is located. You can delete them if you want at that point.

What browser are you using?

She is using FireFox. Also worthy of (re)note is that the 'recently viewed' list that is displayed when you open AAR or you can display them from any open PDF file, are both links to viewed PDF's in the cloud as well as any recently viewed PDFs that one might have saved on their harddrive.

 

[southkogs]

"Recently Viewed" in the list only means that Acrobat remembers the file name and it's last location. If you've deleted the file, it may still show up in "Recently Viewed" but if you open it you should get a "file not found" error.

 

[Boomyal]

"Recently Viewed" in the list only means that Acrobat remembers the file name and it's last location. If you've deleted the file, it may still show up in "Recently Viewed" but if you open it you should get a "file not found" error.

Maybe true, southkogs, if the PDF resided on your harddrive, but in this case, it is a PDF's opened and viewed on line, but not downloaded and saved. As such it is just a link to the PDF in the cloud or the PDF still exists in memory but deleting temporary internet files did not break the link to the PDF.

 

[bruceb58]

I just tried this with a couple financial accounts by pasting the link to a pdf into another browser. In each case it asked me to login again. Are you able to view the PDF days later?

In another account(American express), it actually downloaded the document and it opened in Acrobat. I could see the file in the temp download folder until I closed Firefox. When I closed Firefox, it was automatically removed.

 

[Boomyal]

I just tried this with a couple financial accounts by pasting the link to a pdf into another browser. In each case it asked me to login again. Are you able to view the PDF days later?

In another account(American express), it actually downloaded the document and it opened in Acrobat. I could see the file in the temp download folder until I closed Firefox. When I closed Firefox, it was automatically removed.

I have eliminated imbedded PDF's by deleting them from the hard drive. Having done so, when you click on that PDF, in the recently viewed queue in the AAR program, it indeed cannot find it.

However, there are two other statements from another bank that show up on that same queue. When you open them, there is a ?? file name at the top of the PDF but it does not have the .pdf in the name. The imbedded ones did. I did a file search for the name of of that PDF and it comes up with nothing. This is why I think that these are links to PDF's in the 'cloud'.

 

[southkogs]

On those last couple, does your computer save the password for the site you get those PDF Statements from? On my Mac, the computer stores a buncha' passwords and what not, asks me if I want to always trust things from a given website and then essentially logs in for me each time I go there. I'm wondering if that might be happening in these cases.

 

[Boomyal]

On those last couple, does your computer save the password for the site you get those PDF Statements from? On my Mac, the computer stores a buncha' passwords and what not, asks me if I want to always trust things from a given website and then essentially logs in for me each time I go there. I'm wondering if that might be happening in these cases.

I'll ask Mrs B, southkogs.