Updated for Firefox 3.0 "Clear Private Data 0.2.2." Firefox Add-On.

Description: This extension utilizes the "Clear Private Data..." feature that is part of Firefox version 1.5 and above. It makes this feature a lot more accessible via right-click context menu and an optional toolbar button.

Update 12/18/08: How to Clear Private Data by changing the default of RichResults feature in Firefox 3.

Saved Passwords: When entering a password on a web page for something such as your email login, Firefox will usually ask if you would like for the password to be remembered.

If you choose for the password to be remembered, it will be stored by the browser and then prepopulated the next time you visit that web page.

Download History: Firefox’s Download Manager keeps a record of every file that you download through the browser.

Cookies: A cookie is a simple text file that is placed on your hard drive when you visit certain web sites. Each cookie is used to tell a web server when you return to its web page. Cookies themselves can't contain any spyware or malware. They can't access your hard drive or compromise the security. Cookies can be helpful in remembering certain settings that you have on a web site. It is necessary to use cookies to establish the particular Web session when you log in into your internet account, being it New York Times on-line edition, this software, bank, etc. Those cookies are called session cookies. Another kind of cookie is a persistent cookie which helps the site to remember your user preferences, such as Amazon.com, HomeDepot.com or Target.com. If you block all cookies, those sites simply will not work.

Cache: Firefox uses its cache to store images, pages, and URLs of recently visited web pages. By using the cache, the browser can load these pages must faster on subsequent visits to the site by loading the images, etc. locally from the cache rather than from the web server itself.

Authenticated Sessions: You may have logged into a site and noticed that when you returned later you were still logged in. This is because Firefox saved your authenticated session.

Now that you understand the meaning behind each menu item, check those that you wish to be erased and be sure that any items you wish to keep intact are unchecked. Once you are ready, click Clear Private Data Now and all of the item types that you selected will be cleared out.

You may have also noticed a choice at the bottom of the dialog entitled “Ask me before clearing private data”. This box is checked by default. Had the box not been checked, your private data would have automatically been cleared when you selected Clear Private Data from the Tools menu or hit the Ctrl+Shift+Delete keyboard shortcut.

In this case, there is another method you must use if you wish to modify your “Clear Private Data” settings.

Read about the Alternate Way To Change ‘Clear Private Data’ Settings in detail below or follow easy steps:

First, click on Tools in your Firefox menu located at the top of your browser. When the drop-down menu appears, scroll down and click on the Options choice.

You will now see the Options menu overlaying your main browser window. Click the Settings button, located on the bottom right hand side of the dialog directly above the Help button.

You will now see a “Clear Private Data” dialog box, similar to the one displayed in Step 3 of this tutorial. There is one added menu item in this dialog, however, entitled “Clear private data when closing Firefox”. When this option is checked, your private data will be cleared each and every time you exit the Firefox application.

To clear the important private data after every browser session follow these easy steps:

1. Click on Tools
2. Then click on Options
3. Go to the Privacy Tab
4. Then at the bottom of the window click on Settings
5. Then check the box beside “Clear Private data when FireFox Closes”
6. Make sure saved passwords and cookies are unchecked
7. Click on OK

Now your private data will be cleared each and every time you exit the Firefox application. In case you want to delete certain saved passwords follow these steps:

1. Click on Tools
2. Then click on Options
3. Go to the Privacy Tab
4. Password Tab
5. View Saved Passwords
6. Click on the Password you want to remove
7. Click on Remove