Question

A privacy engineer is reviewing a new browser-based customer portal before launch. The development team implemented an autofill feature that pre-populates a returning user's shipping and payment fields by caching the data in the browser's localStorage in cleartext, so it persists across sessions even after the user logs out. The team argues this improves usability and reduces re-entry errors. Applying privacy by design and privacy by default, what is the MOST appropriate recommendation?

Accepted Answer

Disable client-side persistent caching of the sensitive fields by default and populate autofill only from server-side data over an authenticated session when the user opts in

Answer

Store the autofill data in localStorage but obfuscate the values with Base64 encoding to reduce readability

Answer

Keep the current design but add a banner disclosing that data is cached locally for convenience

Answer

Move the cached data from localStorage to sessionStorage while keeping it in cleartext and enabled by default