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Do We Need A Better Private Browsing Mode? (networkworld.com)
Network World's Alan Zeichi recently argued "We need a better Private Browsing mode." Slashdot reader Miche67 writes: As this writer says, Chrome's Incognito Mode "doesn't offer strong protection at all." [Incognito mode "only prevents Chrome from saving your site visit activity. It won't stop other sources from seeing your browsing activity."] And Firefox's Private Browsing with Tracking Protection -- while stronger than Chrome -- is an all-or-nothing option. "You can't turn it off for sites you trust, but have it otherwise enabled by default."
The submission ends, "Every single link to non-trusted websites should open, by default, in a Private/Incognito window. C'mon, browser makers, get this done." This raises two questions. How do Slashdot's readers browse? And do you think we need a better private mode for web browsing?
The submission ends, "Every single link to non-trusted websites should open, by default, in a Private/Incognito window. C'mon, browser makers, get this done." This raises two questions. How do Slashdot's readers browse? And do you think we need a better private mode for web browsing?
If you don't want people to know you're watching porn online, don't watch porn online. If you don't want people to know you're accessing illicit content online, don't access illicit content online. Don't have anything to hide and you won't have any problems. The paranoia is from perverts, criminals, and other losers who feel the need to access illicit things online that they don't want others to know about. Modify your own behavior and you'll have no problems with needing to keep secrets.
Sat in our parents basements in our underwear.
Yes, my parents get suspicious when I lock the door.
Common everybody knows that the private browsing mode is just a porn mode that hides your history from other users of your Computer, nothing more.
I just use Tor if i want real privacy.
99.99% of my browsing I don't care if hosts know that I've been there before, or that I've been to a "partner" site. I rather like that my browser keeps a history of visited sites. Incognito is good if you want to keep your dirty habits secret from someone who might get their hands on your data. There is no such thing as truly private browsing. Yeah, yeah, VPN for your torrents, Great Firewall, etc, but there are holes in the security well past anything a typical user can influence.
-= I can't think of anything witty, creative, or insightful for my sig, so deal with this. =-
There's always tor browser. It's what I use.
What about VPN's?
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
Rather than, ""Every single link to non-trusted websites should open, by default, in a Private/Incognito window," it should read, ""Every single link should open, by default, in a Private/Incognito window." In fact, there should be no way for a website to determine where else you've been. Sandbox everything; it's the only way to force advertisers and tracking companies to do things differently.
brwski
"Because without beer, things do not seem to go as well''
And yes an improved private mode would be a good thing.
We need a better social dynamic where the forces of greed and graft aren't out to secure everyone's dirty laundry for big profit. (you know. Extortion, blackmail, protection rackets, basically what the NSA is out for, along with the basic "Oh, you like porno with big giant dicks in it? We offer a wide assortment of novelty giant dildos for you to buy! Isn't that GREAT!?" that seems to have infested the internet lately.)
I may be a greybeard by today's standards, but I remember when the internet was more about community, sharing news and jokes, and intellectual pursuits. Eternal September was the death of the internet. What we have now is a superhighway of advertisements directed into your eyeballs, and automated grabber arms reaching for your banking information.
Better private mode browsing would be a great help, but there's more to that when protecting your identity online. For one thing, private mode browsing is meant to protect your history on your local machine, not across the internet. Secondly, unless you are willing to browse without the aid of javascript and cookies, there's no way to stop web site operators from tracking you. Sure, you can stop cross site scripting, but you can't stop one website from sharing your cookie data with another website, or any other data they can garner.
So do you want to be truly anonymous? Use the Tor Browser, never use javascript, turn off cookies, and enjoy your sterile internet.
Or, you can accept a certain amount of risk and enjoy a rich, vibrant internet experience.
(I don't mean to disparage the Tor browser, it's a great product and I use it for some things.)
(Score: -1, Stupid)
NoScript with only first party scripts allowed by default, and a handful of CDNs whitelisted. CCleaner Pro cleans up all of my browser activity every time I close it. Untangle denies connections to ad servers and trackers at the firewall level.
Am I still being tracked? Probably...but the information obtained is much less juicy. I haven't seen an ad 'follow me' around the internet in quite some time.
Chrome Incognito and FireFox's Private Browsing are functionally identical. The caveat that the author highlights is how the Internet works. Of course sites have a record of your visit... they have to, to feed you the page! The disclaimer is to make sure that people know Incognito mode is like wearing an Anonymous mask, not like being invisible. And if you go up to an ATM dressed like V, but get money out of your credit card, then obviously the bank knows who visited the ATM despite the mask.
This basic ignorance of how cookies work is pervasive.
Private browsing opens your browser in a blank-slate mode. Generally, no plugins, no cookies. That means Amazon doesn't know who you are, so you can't one-click buy. Your news-reader makes you log in again. It takes longer to access your email because Gmail makes you log in and re-affirm your authenticator. Your ad blocker is disabled. Your CSS fixing plugin is blocked.
This is not how I want to use my computer, logging in to every single site every single time I visit despite being on a trusted device. We have plugins and cookies for a reason, because they make the Internet a more useful tool. They also have nefarious uses, but saying that the Internet should throw out all convenience to maximize security is ignorant of the reality that people will just switch to the more convenient browser.
What we need is not a better incognito mode, but for tech journalists to stop pontificating about technology they do not understand.
If you really want to improve your anonymity online there are plugins that allow you to whitelist 'safe' cookies, and trash or block all the others. That plus plugins to block third-party widgets allow you to get 99% of the functionality from the Internet with only 1% of the spying. But these plugins take work on your part, to identify what sites and cookies you trust. Most people are too lazy. And the browser has no way of knowing for you. For example, I may want Amazon to remember me so I can buy with one click... you may not because you don't trust Amazon's tracking of what products you look at. The browser shouldn't be deciding that for you, but making choices like that for every site is a pain few users will bother with.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
This is an interesting issue because it's become so complex. To browse privately and still allow a website to function has become a difficult prospect.
You want each website to work, but you don't want any cookies or other data from one site to be able to be read by another. So individually sandboxed pages and cookies are the idea. Even if you block third party tracking cookies, other sites might be looking for cookies set by other discreet sites, not just cookies from tracking firms. The problem is so many sites use third party services for photo and sometimes entire article syndication that it's very difficult to tear everything apart. It's almost a case by case basis.
The worst offenders are news sites. Browsing with noscript, the list of third party URLs sometimes scrolls off the page. It can be difficult to pick through the content and find the correct one to enable an embedded video to play, for example.
For now I browse with noscript and adblock plus and occasionally private windows, but noscript is not an option for anything but serious enthusiasts who are willing to pick through all the trash to get what they want.
Browsing without an ad blocker and noscript on most sites is like sex without protection. You might be looking on that one day when a mainstream ad network has become infected with malware, and oops, you're fucked! I'm not against advertising but how you can trust any of it when so many ad networks have been compromised in the past, repeatedly?
If you're concerned about tracking, just install the Ghostery extension. It takes care of this.
I don't respond to AC's.
I run incognito on occasion, but as a rule i'm on Firefox+NoScript+ABP and not actually in 'Private' browsing mode.
I suspect this leaves me much more trackable, but if i am browsing untrusted sites (read:ANY sites), i am way more worried about remote 0day compromise of the week than i am tracking.
Still, if i could auto-incognito and whitelist from that mode or cognito-reload at will (without enabling anything else) I would likely add that to my mix. But again, i run scripts disabled all the time so i'm willing to be a bit more involved in my browsing than most.
--- Mercutio was right.
It doesn't affect cross window cookies and other items that people should be concerned with. Unless you close the browser completely, private mode holds session data for the length of the browser instance. Meaning you are leaking all kinds of data at the very least on a per site, and likely on a cross site basis any time you don't full shut down the browser between websites which might carry over session information.
You don't have to believe me, go test it for yourself with a site that has session cookies. Close your private window without logging out, open a new private window and see if you get a new login page, or a return to your previous session.
Privacy mode is one of the most dangerous misfeatures added to browsers today because it gives a false sense of security without offering any of the features that 'common knowledge' assumes it has.
Feed your brains bitches. It's the one way to fight back against the system.
Given that many users don't know the difference between 'privacy' and 'security', I have taken to calling it 'amnesic' or 'forgetful' mode instead.
Nothing prevents anyone in the path from analyzing and tracking your traffic. Don't pretend common CAs haven't been voluntarily, transparently compromised. You have no way to verify.
Do you trust your ISP? Do you trust their peers? Do you trust the telcos? Do you trust the service provider?
FWIW:
I have about 10 different firefox profiles and a menu widget to launch them individually. Most are divided by task - one for all my banking, another for managing utility bills, one for "window shopping," another just for making purchases when I know exactly what I want, another for gmail (actually two different profiles for different gmail accounts), another that has no disk cache configured and wipes everything on exit. I also have two profiles for completely fake identities that I have very lax security on so that they are deliberately tracked. They are like "cover identities" - better to give the trackers something that they think is real than to look suspicious by trying too hard to avoid tracking.
All the profiles have different sets of extensions (although 90% of the extensions are common across all my profiles). Beyond the basics like Adblock, NoScript, Requestpolicy, and Self-Destructing Cookies I also use extensions like Random Agent Spoofer and Canvas Defender to give each profile a different "fingerprint."
Also I use the PrivateInternetAccess VPN because it lets me switch IP addresses at will, so whenever I fire up a new profile I also switch to a new IP address. I am looking into setting up a bunch of outbound proxy servers, each one bound to a different VPN tunnel so that each profile can get a persistent but unique IP address. I've just been too lazy to put that together yet.
All in all it is a PITA to set up, but once everything is in place it is pretty easy to use. The one thing that really increased usability was to set each profile to have a different theme, so that it is hard to make the mistake of using one profile when I thought I was using a different one.
Whatever browser mode has by default, needs to fake out various values containing user traceable value, and route via tor by default.
For sites where you Want tracking, say a sports sign up site, or Amazon, you turn off the default.
It cannot just block. It needs to fake em out. Same for apps on mobile. Say yes to camera, local storage, etc. But then fake em all out by default.
just by blocking google analytics you get up to 4sec faster pageload (1mbps wifi b).
all crossdomain scripts should be blocked by default (ideally all crossdomain resources)
crossdomain flash & videos would become click to load/play
crossdomain images would become click to load/view
and the bigges security issue of the web; crossdomain scripts would hopefully be blocked away...
There's no need for them, all they do is allow tracking. Of course there are other ways to track, but 3rd party cookies are the biggest offender.
Even Mozilla already knows this, and has been working towards a solution: https://blog.mozilla.org/tanvi/2016/06/16/contextual-identities-on-the-web/
And we all know how terrible and worthless Mozilla is.
Firefox here. For a lack f a better alternative. The day the user preference to disable javascript disappeared, I was royally pissed off. The day the user preference to disable cookies hid behind an obscure about:config mumbo jumbo I noticed: no, not my allies.
After all, most of their money come from ad industry, so what should I expect?
That day with pocket was just confirmation of something I knew already.
Firefox. I use you, But I don't love you anymore.
<plug>
We (privavore) are creating a fork for Firefox. (privafox.) By default we change all cookies into session-only. But with twists:
- persistent cookies are allowed for sites that you provide a password to. The assumption is that if you log into a site the you probably want your shopping cart retained, and that by logging in you realize that the site will keep track of you. But we don't allow 3rd-party cookies.
- workarounds for the EU cookie consent (in progress). By disallowing cookies by default you will get the "we use cookies to improve your experience" prompt.
- user-agent is fixed (in-progress). That makes it a lot more difficult to distinguish different users behind the same ip (NAT).
</plug>
Both firefox' and chrome's private browsing mode leaves something to be desired. But that's ok.Their developers focus on creating the best browser. We just provide "after-market" customizations. Not for you, but for your less tech-savvy parents.
Or close your eyes when you browse, nobody can see you.
Block all tracking via cookies, analytics, web bugs and trackers:
Use Firefox in normal mode with the following addons:
CanvasBlocker
FlashStopper
HTTPS-Everywhere
NoScript
Privacy Badger
Random Agent Spoofer
RefControl
RequestPolicy Continued
Self-Destructing Cookies
ShareMeNot
uBlock or Adblock Plus
In general, surf your porn in Linux on an older version of Tor with your clock set goofy.
Virtual machine even better.
You can also burn a CD of Tails and use that for the butts. If you never noticed, cam site all TRY to connect to gstatic (Google) and yes it is tracked. Use NoScript and uncheck all boxes under ABE, and remove all from the box of pre-allows on the XSS tab.
Start there.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-stop-firefox-making-automatic-connections
After that, go to
https://panopticlick.eff.org/
and
http://browserspy.dk/
Google being the US Government cunts that they are, got browserspy.dk to contact gstatic if you let it. Keep it blocked while you check.
use duckduckgo.com or the .onion version here http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/
Other stuff but I won't tell you, find it.
On the other hand, if you think "private browsing mode" matters even in the slightest, learn this now. Google sees your banking, your porn, etc.
I would prefer to sandbox each site i goto so i can look for those tightie whities and then browse othersites in peace. Thats all I really woukd want... Maybe charge to store cookies or to track my ip address
In a Qube ... https://www.qubes-os.org/tour/
In Firefox Nightly Build you can use containers for different things. They are totally seperated from one another.
Not sure if it will come to Stable Build in the future, and I'm also not sure if you can create your own containers or just use the default 4-5 in their example.
But this way you would get kind of real Private Browsing (In the meaning that sites are totally isolated from each other).
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Contextual_Identity_Project/Containers
Firefox clears all that when you close all tabs of that site in the private window.
Ghostery's business model is that they prevent other trackers from tracking their users so that the tracking data gathered by Ghostery itself is more valuable.
There is no need to compromise with commercial interests on this subject. Use EFF's Privacy Badger instead.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Preferences / Privacy / Uncheck Accept cookies from sites
Then click on Exceptions and build a whitelist of sites you do want to allow cookies on... probably just the sites you login to. Sites that require cookies to show you content can be placated by allowing them cookies that only last for the browser sesson.
Should be the last piece of the puzzle for ya. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Opera already has a built in VPN option for private tabs.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
that browser feature sits on a metric fuck ton of browser code, sitting on a metric fuck ton of modern featureful OS code, sitting on a metric fuck ton of closed source firmwares/bios/uefi, sitting on a metric fuck ton of closed source hardware made my manufacturers in China that don't give a rats ass about you. Yes, your idea for a silly little browser feature is going to save us from the surveillance apocolypse. Learn to be helpless.
Done.
Both Firefox and Chrome have the concept of different profiles/users. If you need to separate your personal ad experience from your professional one, just split your browser in two with a different profile. This means all your plugins/cookies/history get loaded into a different sandbox all together. It can still be separately fingerprinted and tracked, but it does separate it.
And luckily, you have total control over all people, thus preventing others from leaving info online about your person ðY
Browsing at least in somewhat private is actually a lot of work. A lot more than most people are willing to put up with. The reason I use Firefox for this is because no other browser has the addons necessary to accomplish this. The addons that I use are:
While SmartReferrer hardly needs any site specific configuration (leaving it at direct hit mode), the other 4 require configuration on site by site basis. This can make browsing really cumbersome and requires putting extra thought and time for each new website you visit. Also, sites like Reddit that load a lot of external resources can also become a pain to use. However, this is the only way I feel that I'm at least in somewhat control of what my browser lets others to know about me.
Of course, there's still the matter of not being able to control my IP address, but that could be taken care of with the use of VPN. The crux is, however, I don't see how most of this could be automated and as long as it cannot be, the private browsing does not really provide all that much benefit.
Obviously they mean secure, not private. Really, no one cares what I do online - I'm rather boring - so I don't care (much) about tracking. But there are times when I'd like to be even more anonymous. And that's easy enough - it's called a VPN.
... or have they been in a cave somewhere and never heard of either?
Given that I'm only aware of two browsers with a built-in VPN, I have to ask - are they working for that Tor browser (based on Firefox) or for Opera (based on Chromium)
Chrome is pathetic with Incognito mode. About all it does do is not save your history. Every thing still goes to Google, and true private browsing would actually include a Tor browser like function in which your IP address is hidden and tracking is completely disabled. Of course this is why internet providers like Comcast hate a browser like Tor. They would rather have users only think they are browsing in private. There are browsers out there that actually do what they promise but it ain't one of the top 4.
APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit http://www.bing.com/search?q=%...
Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus (slows you) + less security issues/complexity. Compliments firewalls (w/ layered drivers blocking less used IP addys vs. hosts blocking more used domains) & DNS (lightens dns load). Gets data via 10 security sites.
Ads rob bandwidth/speed, security (malvertising), privacy (tracking) + anonymity.
Hosts add speed (hardcodes/adblocks), security (bad sites/poisoned dns), reliability (dns down), & anonymity (dns requestlogs/trackers) natively. Hosts != ClarityRay blockable (vs. souled-out to admen inferior wasteful redundant slow usermode addons)
Works vs. caps & HTTP PUSH ads w/ firewalls.
Avg. webpage = big as Doom http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... & ads = 40% of the size.
APK
P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/... (Verified by Malwarebytes' S. Burn "I've seen the code & it's safe" http://forum.hosts-file.net/vi... )
Solution: Use Chromium's "Open a New Window With Temporary Profile" feature. This is a problem that's already been solved.
I use a full body condom when browsing.
Privacy Browser is a web browser for Android designed to address this very issue. https://www.stoutner.com/priva... There is a planned feature to do exactly what the submitter requested, "Every single link to non-trusted websites should open, by default, in a Private/Incognito window." https://redmine.stoutner.com/i...
See https://ffprofile.com/ to create a secured profile. See the github link to contribute with own ideas.