Is there no way to disable the storage of flash videos (FLV) in your temp folder?

Question

I found out that even if you delete Flash cookies, the FLV files of all videos you watch are stored in a temp folder, typically C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Temp. They are deleted when you close the video, but they are not securely deleted (overwritten). Is there some way to make this directory "virtual", so it is in-memory, or to stop flash from storing them there, or to ensure they are securely overwritten when deleted? Why does flash even need to do this when most people have 2+ Gigs of memory in their machines? Does any one have ideas about how to either stop these files from being written to disk or to ensure they are securely overwritten when deleted?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Browsers save files in a cache to make data load quicker in the future. You might be able to get around this by going into the settings for your browser of choice and setting it to use 0 (zero) MB for the cache or temporary internet files. If you find that the browser is still saving data to the hard drive then you will probably want to clear the cache (temporary files) every time just before you close the browser and then use a secure wipe / secure delete utility to zero-write the folder contents and the free space on the drive

Answer 2

Flash does this in case you rewind the video so it doesn't pull the data from the server again. It also needs a place to store data retrieved ahead of where it is currently playing the video, to ensure a smooth playback experience.

If you want temporary web storage to be totally volatile, look into RAM disk software.