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Comment by andrewclunn | Hacker News Reader

I wrote about 4 versions of this comment before settling on this one. I did so with developer tools open, just to make sure that no data was being transferred as I did (nope looks like Hacker News is safe at least).

I think this may become standard practice for me. Actually, if somebody makes (or knows of) a simple browser extension that simply alerts me of when I'm sending data to the server, I'd use it.

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It may sound like paranoia, but Facebook and I'm sure many other sites report every keystroke during typing whether or not it's published or deleted before you press enter.[1]

[1] http://techland.time.com/2013/12/18/facebook-can-see-what-yo...

In fact, to go farther, some of the live chat support widgets on sites have a feature where they show the support rep what you've typed as you're typing, before sending.

There is a valid use for that and it's a faster response time by the rep

Oh, yes, absolutely. I think it's a fantastic feature. Just one whose existence I hadn't even considered until it was demonstrated to me.

Damn, those API endpoints must take a beating. Sending out a request on every single character.

Websockets

Disable javascript? At least HN works without it.

I'm a front end developer. That's not really an option.

Use multiple browsers. Work, Play, Security

So… you're _creating_ the problem.

No, they are getting paid by someone who is creating the problem.

Thank you. Yes.

NoScript lets you pick which domains you permit to run javascript.

What about composing in the editor of your choice, then pasting the final version?

There are even extensions to automate that. You'll have to trust the extension, however.

Links to any such extensions? I'm not even sure what to search.

It's All Text! on Firefox

Yes, that's the one :)

What exactly are you trying to do? The data will be transferred anyway when you click 'Submit'.

To keep information from being sent before the user is ready to send it.

What if you accidentally paste your social security number?

Hacker News actually only has one bit of javascript on it, which sends the request when you click the "upvote" button (and does so with `new Image(endpoint)`, not XHR). If you view the source of this page, it's at line 3.

Many of the sites I build are constantly sending and receiving state updates between the client and server. I'm sure you could make such an alert widget but it would drive you nuts on most modern websites.

Surely he means something like an activity light, not a modal dialog.

Surely if you expected someone to open your Yahoo mailbox other side of the world to read your draft email, it would have to be saved on their servers.

ItsAllText (Firefox) replaces text dialogs with the Vim editor of your choice.

(OK, also non-vim editors, but you know what they say about people who use those....)

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