Rob is exactly right. Staying logged in on your computer only applies on that unique, individual device. Another machine can't tap into that. If a remote identity thief wants to log in to your email (in order to find other logins, your banking info, and who knows what else, or to hijack your account to use as a spam generator), they need to know your password regardless of whether you are still logged to Gmail in on your own computer or not. So, don't store your password anywhere that isn't encrypted. But as for staying logged into Gmail on your own computer, that is quite safe unless you are allowing the general public to use your user on your computer unsupervised.
On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 9:04:18 AM UTC-5, Rob McBroom wrote: > > On 11 Dec 2013, at 2:53, Zech wrote: > > Why is storing a password in a script file A Terrible Idea, but staying > permanently logged in isn't? The worst anyone could do if they found the > script would be to look at my emails... which they'd be able to do anyway > if I stayed logged in, > > Well, for one thing, you’re only permanently logged in from your machine. > You’d probably notice someone sitting there reading your mail. > > On the other hand, with your password, they could log in from anywhere, > enable additional things on your Google Account, *send* mail as you, > request password resets from other services, etc. > > A ton of people have already solved the problem of easy automated logins > in far more secure ways. You should look into using the Keychain, > 1Password, LastPass, or something like that. > > -- > Rob McBroom > http://www.skurfer.com/ > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Quicksilver" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
