Abine Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Abine?
- What is Abine about?
- How does Abine work?
- Is it safer than what I'm doing?
- Why use it?
- Is it free?
- How do I use Abine the first time?
- How do advanced users use Abine?
- Why isn't it working correctly?
- What does "Switch Identity" mean?
- Help! I forgot my master password
- It saved the wrong login and password information. What do I do now?
- Can multiple users use Abine on the same machine?
- Ok, what is an identity? Why do I have more than one?
- What is this list of Enabled sites? How do I add or remove sites?
- I sometimes want Abine to be disabled. How can I do this most easily?
- Does Abine slow down my browser since you're doing stuff on the pages?
- Why does the privacy info page say I don't have any accounts at a site when I do have an account there?
- Are you pinging your server to get updated information on databreaches or anything else?
- What if someone else is using my computer – can they get my passwords?
- Where are my passwords and other data stored?
- Can I trust this to keep my credit card #'s safe?
- How do I see all of my data? Where are my usernames and passwords?
- How do I back up my profile data?
- Am I already opting out of targeted ad networks? Is this done automatically?
- Am I already opting out of other ways Web sites are tracking me?
- Help! I can't login to my mail/facebook/farm!
- I use a netbook with a small screen and can't see everything, what do I do?
- Why does my https connection say "partially encrypted" now with TACO?
- Why are there all these cookies on my machine now?
- How do I uninstall if something has gone wrong?
- Why does Abine leave files on my computer after uninstalling?
- What are the latest release notes for the Privacy Suite?
About Abine
Using Abine
Security and Privacy
Support Questions
Questions About Abine
What is Abine?
It's a free browser add-on (for Firefox and IE) which you download, install, and use to control the information websites have about you. Companies and governments get information about you both implicitly (through cookies, correlation, IP address, etc.) and explicitly (from web forms you submit). The Abine software helps you get control of both. Opt out of intrusive behavioral advertising. Remember, organize, and update all your logins, passwords, signup forms, and even credit cards from one very fast, secure tool.>>
About Abine
If you're like most users (and Abine's founders), you spend way too much time re-typing, re-registering, re-setting, and recycling accounts. You worry about your online privacy and all your personal information "on the web", but usually feel powerless to do anything about it. Remember even five or ten years ago, you didn't have too many online accounts. Now, keeping track of these accounts and your personal info is more important… but it has to be easy. Over time, we'll add more features to help you automatically manage your web experience. And we won't ever violate our principles by advertising or marketing to you to to do so. >>
How does Abine work?
The Abine add-on runs inside your browser, where it can be used to securely remember your passwords, logins, and other information and auto-fill forms for you, making it much easier to use different logins and profiles at different sites. It stops advertisers from tracking you, keeps you private when you want to be, and organizes all your accounts automatically for you, every day. Want to update, delete, or otherwise control your account info? Do it with one click.>>
Is it safer than what I'm doing?
Safer and easier because you own everything. Your information about your accounts is not only encrypted, but stays on your machine. No other company or person can get to it. Seems sensible, right? >>
Why use it?
Logins. Can you remember all your accounts and passwords or how many times you had to (re)enter your information online? And you're creating more accounts daily so save time and gain control by keeping them organized.
Privacy. Do you want more or less online privacy for yourself or your family? Do you want to do something about it without giving up the convenience of social networks, search engines and online shopping, or becoming your own computer security department? Abine gives you back control over your online privacy.
Security. Have you had your credit card number or identity stolen? Your online passwords compromised? Do you worry that it could happen to you, as it has happened to 100's of millions of other people? The Abine software and services both help secure your information and make it possible to follow all of those online security best practices (such as never using the same password or changing passwords) that are too cumbersome for most regular people. >>
Is it free?
Yes. Down the road, we may add a few optional services which cost something, but the core tools will remain free to all users. Try it out now. >>
Questions About Using Abine
How do I use Abine the first time?
Just log in to sites as you always do. Let Abine remember your account information. >>
How do advanced users use Abine?
Abine helps you manage all your accounts, passwords, and personal info online as you naturally use the Web. There's really no "right way" to use the tools. Many users create multiple personas/identities with different emails and other information. They can then easily switch to use different profiles at different kinds of sites. If you're ever concerned that certain sites know too much about you or that you never want your personal info from a particular site or set of sites to be shared with other businesses or anyone, use these features. Other advanced ' users make the most use of cookie privacy or email shielding features. See the online manual for more thorough documentation of various features. >>
Why isn't it working correctly?
If you can't fill in a certain form automatically, usually it's due to irregular coding. Send us the URL in an email and if possible, we'll fix it. If something else isn't working right, please let us know. >>
What does "Switch Identity" mean?
Your Abine identity/persona is all the stuff a particular web site or account "knows" about you. Switching between two identities means you can literally create different kinds of profiles for your online life. If you want to search for sensitive medical advice, switch to an identity that can't be tracked back to your job or your social network, get the advice, and then switch back to your regular persona. >>
Help! I forgot my master password
Your master password is your own padlock to your passwords and account info. Abine doesn't have it, and no matter how many times you ask, that just won't change. Time to start over. You can contact us for some tips about how to make this easier. >>
It saved the wrong login and password information. What do I do now?
If you guess the wrong login or password, sometimes Abine will save this information, thinking you have another account at the site. You'll then notice more than one account name displayed in the login window. In this or any related case, you can quickly delete the incorrect logins by just clicking on the "X". After confirming, that account identity will be deleted. >>
Can multiple users use Abine on the same machine?
Nope, you have a master password. You never told this to anyone else who might use your computer, right? Right. Good! We'll be adding features to make it simple to have multiple users of Abine on any browser in the future. >>
Ok, what is an identity? Why do I have more than one?
Identities (sometimes also called "Personas" or "Profiles") are simple convenient sets of information you have saved to auto-fill into forms later when needed. For some sites (like your banks and travel sites) you'll need most of your real information. For many others, you can choose to provide less information or easily keep your home, work, and other data separated. >>
What is this list of Enabled sites? How do I add or remove sites?
Enabled sites are simply web sits which work well with Abine security features such as instant login, auto-fill, and 1-click register. To enable or disable any site in particular, just open Abine from your toolbar, click on the Preferences tab at the top right, and Enabled Sites at the bottom left. Click on the site name to highlight it and then click on the Enable or Disable buttons (shown in red).
Remember, Abine also works with thousands of other sites not on the list - just make sure the top checkbox is checked to try it anywhere.>>
I sometimes want Abine to be disabled. How can I do this most easily?
Update in 3.02
In the latest version you can easily disable TACO/Abine for a specific website you may be having issues at such as a bank. (Be sure to accept cookies there first).
To disable a site, in the FireFox menu go to Tools -> TACO 3.0 -> Options -> "Disable Abine on this site"
In version 3.01 and earlier:
If an Abine auto-fill window comes up on a site you don't want it to, you can just click the "Don't Show" checkbox, and it will stop appearing. If you want Abine to appear later on this site, you can always just click the Abine logo on the toolbar, or right-click and choose fill-forms. In some cases you might want Abine disabled on the site. Here's how to do that:
Open Abine form the toolbar menu to bring up the dashboard. Click the Preferences TAB. There you have two options to disable/re-enable Abine.
Option 1: Disable non-supported sites checkbox
Un-check this box and Abine will only appear at enabled sites. To view a list of enabled sites, click the enabled sites TAB.
Option 2: Disable the enabled site
In Enabled Sites TAB you also have the option to disable Abine on a certain site. Highlight the site and then click disable. You can also add or remove sites from your list. >>
Does Abine slow down my browser since you're doing stuff on the pages?
Abine interacts with each web page as it loads. We do this to make sure that your privacy controls are maintained by doing things like blocking cookies that a site might try and set on your machine, or stopping websites from secretly storing data about you through flash plugins (see the Tech Specs and Cookies pages for more details).
The good news: it takes only 3/10s of a second longer to protect your privacy.
And we're making that even faster...
Check out our page on browser performance for more info. >>
Why does the privacy info page say I don't have any accounts at a site when I do have an account there?
What we really mean there is that we don't know if you have an account at that site.
There's a beta privacy app in Abine for security managing accounts, generating passwords, etc. If we're managing an account there we can include that in the Privacy Info window as well as change the risk depending on wether or not you're using your primary email of a shielded disposable email address. So unless you are using the beta "Logins and Passwords" privacy app we can't tell for sure if you've got an account yet.
Read more about the privacy info page and the risk level.
Questions About Security and Privacy
Are you pinging your server to get updated information on databreaches or anything else?
No, we're not. Just like any other add-on, Firefox does an update check for new versions about once a day. That's all. We check for data breaches against a list that's in the install, and gets updated only when new versions of the add-on are installed. (Later we'll add a way for you to update it whenever you want.)
If your using some of the other services like disposable email forwarding, there's a minimum set of data that gets stored (e.g. where we need to forward emails), but we only ever get the minimum information required and we do all we can to make sure your use of different services can't be connected together (by doing things like generating different random id's for each service). You can read more about this in the privacy policy.
Can I trust this to keep my credit card #'s safe?
Abine's mission is to give internet users true security and control. We do not store your credit card numbers or passwords on our servers -- instead, they are encrypted with the password only you know and stored on your PC. You can read more the technical details here.
Your credit cards here are as safe as they are in your wallet. In fact, not typing in your credit cards on each new site not only saves you time, but protects against some key logger attacks. >>
What if someone else is using my computer – can they get my passwords?
Nope, you have a master password. You never told this to anyone else who might use your computer, right? Right. >>
Where are my passwords and other data stored?
The Abine software encrypts and stores all passwords and account data on your PC. It can only be seen by you with your master password. We do not store your data on our servers and cannot access them, by design. They are encrypted using industry standard 256 Bit AES encryption.
Windows: If you are a Windows user, all your data can be found in your application/data directory: For example: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Abine.
Note: on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the "Document and Settings" directory is generally hidden; to access the directory, you may need to set Windows Explorer to show System and Hidden directories and files.
Macintosh: On Mac OS X, a typical profile location is: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profile Name/Abine
Linux: On Linux, a typical profile location is: ~/.abine >>
How do I see my data? Where are all my usernames, and passwords?
All your sites with account information are stored only on your PC. You can view and change any of your account info easily by opening Abine from your toolbar and clicking on the My Accounts and Sites tab.
IMPORTANT:To see your passwords, usernames, and info for that site, you need to click on the account name underneath the site in the left navigation bar. >>
How do I back up my profile data?
Occasionally, your browser software or your computer system may malfunction and cause important profile data to be lost. Therefore we recommend that you make a backup copy of your Abine data periodically. Backup frequency will depend on your usage. Just copy the Abine directory to a portable drive or whatever means of backup you prefer.
Soon we'll have a features that takes care of this automatically and securely. >>
Am I already opting out of targeted ad networks? Is this done automatically?
Yes. You're automatically opt-ed out of 100 behavioral ad networks. Nothing more you need to do. Each day, the program creates 100+ customized cookies that tell the ad networks "Don't track me" and that's it. No matter what sites you visit, they'll work. (Of course, you can allow these to track you if you want by clicking on the button saying "stop opt out". >>
Am I already opting out of other ways Web sites are tracking me?
No. This is not done automatically. If you have it turned, on, we show you in the "privacy alerts pop up window" if there are other ways web sites are tracking you. Blocking these is currently optional and so you need to do it yourself right now. Just click "Block it" when you see the window come up or block a whole group of tracking technologies at once by going to the "Opt-Out and Block" tab. We remind you that like cookies, the danger is, sometimes these will cause problems using the sites. (why they're optional). >>
Questions About Support
Help! I can't login to my mail/facebook/farm!
If you can't login to a webmail or other accounts (banks are little different), its probably because a cookie that website insists on using has been blocked.
This can be confusing, as some websites (like Facebook) put cookies on many, many other websites, so blocking all on one site can inadvertently block cookies you may need on another. As a result you might not have noticed that they got blocked as well when you were adjusting settings on a website.
In the updated version 3.02:The new update makes this very easy, go to the website and then in the Firefox tools menu select "TACO 3.0/Abine", go to "Cookie Settings" and choose "Allow Cookies for this site" or "Allow Cookies for all sites"
In version 3.01 and earlier:
The sure way to fix this is to clear any cookie blocks right out of Firefox. Here's how:
- Make sure that you are accepting cookies and 3rd party cookies
- Go to Tools->Options in the *FireFox* menu (or File->Preferences on a Mac). See the screenshots below.
- The options window will come up. Click on "Privacy"
- Set the "Firefox will:" drop down menu to "Use custom settings for history"
- From the options below, make sure that "Accept cookies from sites" is checked.
- Click the "Exceptions" button to check the exceptions list to make sure you haven't block a specific site. (if you don't see exceptions button - choose "Firefox will: use custom settings".
- Find anything with the name of the website you are having issues with in the list (such as "login.yahoo.com and "yahoo.com") that has a status of "Blocked". Select them, and click "Remove Site" or "Remove All Sites" to get rid of all the exceptions (this will unblock other cookies as well).
You now should be able to log into your website. Contact support@getabine.com if you can't.
I use a netbook with a small screen and can't see everything, what do I do?
If you use a netbook or other device with a particularly small screen then we have an updated version that will automatically scale itself to fit your resolution. We're working a more elegant way to do this, but you can get this fixed version right now on our updates page.
Why does my https connection say "partially encrypted" now with TACO?
For some sites it will appear that https is not encrypting the entire session. This is due to the additional of a iframe into the page that is entirely local to your browser and is a container for some Abine windows.
Your session with the website is encrypted. However the page will report it as a "partially" encrypted connection.
We are working on making sure this is resolved. Currently if you are concerned you can disable TACO on a specific site and see the connection status. >>
Why are there all these cookies on my machine now?
We've been asked why did I find a bunch of new tracking cookies on my machine and what are they? (for example, for Windows users in: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxx.default\cookies.sqlite:\)
Those cookies are actually opt-out of targeted advertising. Like the do not call list, they tell advertising networks that you are telling them not to deliver targeted advertising to you. TACO creates them for you and keeps them updated, and replaces them in case a websites is able removing or overwriting them.
They are "Good Cookies" somewhat like "Good Cholestoral". So keep them, and keep eating your Avocados. You can read more about cookies and opt-ing out of targeted advertising.
How do I uninstall if something has gone wrong?
If you need to uninstall it's easy. On Firefox it is all done from within Firefox.
For FireFox:- In the FireFox menu, go to "Tools" and pick "Add-ons" (Screenshots are below)
- A window will appear. Click "Extensions"
- Select TACO (or Abine) from the list and then click the "Disable" or "Uninstall" button.
- Restart FireFox
For Internet Explorer:
For Internet Explorer installs, you go through the normal "Add/Remove Programs" feature. >>
Why does Abine leave files on my computer after uninstalling?
Uninstalling Abine removes ALL the software components of Abine from your computer.
However, uininstall does not delete your settings -- it only deletes the software components themselves. The main reason there are files left behind is that they are your data files & settings -- they are not Abine executables. This is similar to what would happen if you uninstalled Microsoft Word -- the program is gone, but uninstalling would not (and should not) delete all of your word documents. To delete these additional files: Delete C:\Program Files\Abine (or search for Abine in your c: drive to find the exact location of this folder)