All the incognito browser windows share the same “session” in Firefox. So say you open an Incognito window to browse Facebook or something, then you open another Incognito window, this new incognito window is linked to the previous incognito window, meaning you are logged into Facebook at that new Incognito window as well. This is because, as I explained before, all the incognito windows share the same “session”
The only way to clear incognito window is to close ALL of them and then create a new incognito window. You dont have to close the main non incognito Firefox window though, just close all the incognito windows. Then open a new one, now your previous session is destroyed and you are new again.
You may know it but its not that common knowledge as it should have been
Maybe it’s because I have a programmer mentality but this is exactly the behavior I would expect, otherwise the "open link in new window"won’t work reliably, all popups would fail and you couldn’t “tear” off a tab in a new window
You are someone who knows how Browsers work so you think this way.
For me that behavior was expected. E.g. if I open a link from incognito in a new window, then it obviously should also use incognito but share its context with the previous sessions, otherwise it would require you to login over and over again. If an independently opened incognito window behaved different from a link-click window, I’d find it even more confusing.
I would say it should be the opposite. Separate windows should be independent but tabs on other hand can share same session.
Nah, what if you drag a tab from one window to another.
I use containers for everything. Best thing Mozilla has ever done.
seems counter intuitive… each incognito window should be separated into their containers.
seems like a good idea to take that container addon and apply that to incognito.
This isn’t well known?
Wish it was
IDK how else it could work.
Anyone who understands what a private window actually does, would expect it to work this way.
I think what you are looking for is Containers. FF uses containers to wall things off from each other, whereas Private sessions are still all sandboxed together, as you discovered. I know this is quite different from how Safari, for example, handles things, but you can accomplish the same things, just a little differently.
… Are there people out there expecting more than a private/incognito session not saving your session data when you end it?
That is the sole reason I use private mode, because I don’t want it to save cookies/cached/temp files/history locally for whatever I’m visiting.
I mean, the naming is a bit misleading, to be fair. Or at least not specific enough. Many people don’t actually know what or who it makes you private towards.
Which is why I appreciate browsers having a little notice about common misconceptions when opening a new private tab or window.
Btw, a good addon for doing that all the time is Cookie AutoDelete. Building up the whitelist will take a while, but it’s worth it in the end.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I believe it adds some features above Firefox’s defaults, but for anyone reading that doesn’t know, Firefox does have a feature
“Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed.” under “Privacy and Security” in settings -> under the “Cookies and Site Data” sub-section.
They also have a “Manage Exceptions” button to build a whitelist and blocklist of websites to always allow cookies and site data, or always block cookies and site data.
For those looking for more extreme add-ons are a great idea, but always prefer built-ins when available/sufficient.
I’m fine with just using Private browsing in my case. My wife knows I look at porn, but I don’t want it to be in her face if she ever uses my computer.
It’s not even called incognito in FF.
That’s not that worrying to me.
This is so counterintuitive and so important. Thank you.
For reference, private mode in Safari protects you from this.
“protects” you from this? Honestly, this is exactly how I’d expect incognito mode to work.
Use profiles instead of incognito when possible. You can have profiles, with different privacy settings, for anything.
just use profiles
firefox profiles have a bad UX in my experience. The Multi-Account Containers addon works better. There’s also Facebook Container, which uses the multi-account containers addon.
If you want security use Tor
Tor is for like the EXTREME end of security that may not be required for casual users but Tor has its place in my computer
This might be a better suggestion then: https://mullvad.net/en/browser
Useful even without a VPN.
How is it better than, say, LibreWolf or Waterfox?
It’s the Tor browser without Tor, there’s a wipe button just for this issue.
I’m asking for like specific features
It’s not a replacement for Firefox or it’s forks, it’s a complement to your main browser. It’s like private browsing but always private and always separate from your other browsers and won’t save any data locally except maybe bookmarks.
The link I originally posted should explain this but here is a page that explains it in greater detail: https://mullvad.net/en/browser/hard-facts. Some more links:
It is a fork of Firefox and what I’m asking is what advantages it gives over librewolf, which also tries to do the same stuff
Your last link is a 404
Yeah, I also found out when I was manually testing our product’s logged-out UX at work and the 2nd trial started logged in.