Surprises with Scriptable Objects and private fields

It is general knowledge that the Unity Inspector shows every that is serialized unless it is hidden with the [System.NonSerialized] attribute. If we want a private field to be serialized and visible we add the [SerializeField] attribute. So far so good.

Now here comes the surprise.
For ScriptableObjects, if used in the Editor, private fields are always serialized. As long as you remain in the Editor, that value will persist even through play mode state changes.

using UnityEngine;

public class DemoObject : ScriptableObject
{
    // This is actually serialized if we are in the Editor!!!
    private string DummyTextA;

    // Only this one is NOT serialized.
    [System.NonSerialized]
    private string DummyTextB;
}

If you are using Scriptable Objects, use [System.NonSerialized] to make sure your private parts are actually kept private.

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