IMAGE: APPLE AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 101S
hould you worry about
remaining logged into websites
on your computer or mobile
device when you’re not using
the site? Whether you’re sitting in front of
the computer or holding the mobile
device or not? Generally, no. Someone
would have to intercept or extract the
tokens used to manage your login
session, and if you have malware on your
device that’s allowing that, other steps
won’t matter, except removing themalware. (There’s no known active
malware for any Apple platform that
would extract this kind of data.)
But some people are nonetheless
concerned that they remain exposed.
Others may share access to a computer
in a family or with roommates or in other
scenarios and want to ensure they don’t
leave themselves open to “friendly
fire”—which can be as innocuous as a
toddler typing randomly into a location
bar in a browser.How to stay safe if you don’t log
out of a website
Some people take fears about account hijacking so seriously that they make
their life harder without increasing their security.
BY GLENN FLEISHMAN