The term you’re looking for is “plaintext” (also written “plain text”) storage.

Direct answer

When a password hint “was not scrambled, it was stored exactly as you wrote it,” that means it was stored in plaintext , not hashed or encrypted. In other words, anyone with access to the database or logs can read it as-is, like My first dog’s name.

Why plaintext is bad

  • Plaintext means the value is readable with no decoding step, the way you type it on screen.
  • If a system says hints are “unencrypted” or “sent in clear text,” that is another way of saying they are stored and transmitted in plaintext.

Related terms you might see

  • Hashed : The hint or password is run through a one‑way function so the original text cannot be directly read from storage.
  • Encrypted : The data is scrambled but can be recovered with a secret key.

So, among typical multiple‑choice options, the correct one would be the option that says “stored in plaintext” (or “stored in clear text / unencrypted”), because that means it was kept exactly as you wrote it.

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