do websites retain this?

like if you go on a login page of yahoo for example
and type in something in the "username" box
but delete it w/o hitting enter.
does what you typed remain on yahoo servers?

 

The typical sign-in page contains a simple HTML form where the values of inputs (username, password, and/or other types) are not sent to the server until the form is submitted by clicking the correct button or hitting enter if that is supported. Usually there is a validation step which prevents the form from being submitted unless/until all of the required inputs are set acceptably. IOW, in the most common case what you typed or pasted into the username box before correction would never be sent off your computer.

However, that basic behavior can be expanded upon to achieve various more complex behaviors. If desired for some reason, a sign-in page can be designed to submit things in a more piecemeal fashion. For example, to update the input options based on what has been entered and submitted thus far. Unless there is some server-based auto-complete function at work, which I wouldn't expect for a username field, I think you'd typically still be OK as long as the username input didn't lose focus and you didn't run into a max length limit. Such events are likely to trigger a handler which could think you are done entering your username and thus go on to send it to the server.

In order to know what kind of sign-in form you're dealing with you'd have to look at the HTML, script, possibly other things. You could also watch your browser's network traffic and factor that in. If the website supports one of the single sign-on systems, information such as username, your logged-in/logged-out status, etc might be sent to parties above and beyond the website you are interacting with and the exchange of that information may or may not be observable by you.

I would expect websites especially larger ones to retain login attempt information including username, IP Address, etc for some time. As for the details, they would be known only to those who are intimately familiar with the server side of things including logging and backup strategies.

 

I know on some sites, text box entries (such as a username box) are validated on-the-fly using Javascript. That way, it can check the entry against their database so you can know whether or not the username is available before submitting the form. However, I highly doubt the server would retain anything (other than the usual IP address/timestamp info) before you actually submit and confirm and the information you entered to create a new account.

 

i'm not talking about a registration page
i'm talking about a login page.
does that retained?

 

ok
but if you fill a box that has the javascript thing
how long is that kept on servers if it's sent before you submit...

 

and do all fields which have reactions after you input have stuff sent to the server?
so for example the yahoo email sending field?

 

so above also applies to text fields with an automatic spellcheck, etc. that the website uses right?

 

i dont mean that
i mean a text field on a website itself
eg on yahoo answers if you type in it tells you "you have x mistakes"