4 ms·

The purpose is to be used for quick browsing, like Google Searches, without worrying with trackers and someone getting your history. You can always use incogni

The purpose is to be used for quick browsing, like Google Searches, without worrying with trackers and someone getting your history. You can always use incognito mode, but this is more convenient. It is also really fast and lightweight, which is a plus for most mobile devices. It is not meant to replace your main browser (probably). Also, as rcthompson said in another comment: > This is useful to use as your default browser. It has a quick way to open the same link in another browser, so you can use it as a sort of quarantine to vet unknown links before exposing your main browser and all its juicy user data to a new website.

nkkollaw 9y ago
I see. Honestly, most of the time when I use Google Searches is because I want to look for something, and I love when Google personalizes results so that if I type "Amiga" it knows it's the computer and I don't want to learn Spanish. Most importantly, I end up visiting lots of websites that I might want to comment on, visit later on/not lose if my phone dies, share with my girlfriend, etc. I personally don't see any advantage with incognito mode unless you want to hide porn from your spouse, so I guess I'm not the target for a browser created to be incognito-mode-only, and if I was I would probably use Tor, because they might not be share my info, but my IP is there for everyone to see along with the websites I visit.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  Not everyone enjoys the filter bubble, but I tend to agree with you that always on incognito mode is annoying and does not protect your privacy except from your spouse. If you want to protect your privacy at least use tor.
  - nkkollaw 9y ago
    Exactly. I don't see how private browsing can protect you in any way, while your IP is in the clear along with all HTTP requests you make.
- barrkel 9y ago
  I want to see the same internet as everyone else. The more my experience is customized to me, the more disconnected I am from people who aren't like me, and the more our views will diverge over time. Ultimately it leads to bad outcomes; Trump, or possibly eventually civil war. So I am against too much automatic hidden customisation. You might think that's hyperbole. I don't. I'm deadly serious; I think something worse than Trump is coming down the tracks because of an increasingly divided polis, and it's divided because of atomisation of world perspective. Filter bubbles driven by hidden preferences are directly responsible for shielding people from unpleasant perspectives, on both sides.
  - abtinf 9y ago
    Everyone else is getting a customized internet view. Using Google through a private browser ensures you see an internet seen by nobody else.
    - walterbell 9y ago
      An internet seen by other private browsers.
- newscracker 9y ago
  > I personally don't see any advantage with incognito mode unless you want to hide porn from your spouse,... This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Tor (not Torbrowser) is very different from incognito/private browsing. Even for your own use, it's another layer of defense to reduce the storage of information on the device about whatever you've been up to. Certainly porn is not the only topic that can polarize people and have them assume things about you. We live in a world where even tiny things can be taken out of context, manipulated and used against us either by the people close to us, or the places we work for, or even the government. You may share a device with someone or allow someone to borrow it. You may have your device stolen while having minimal or no passcode or other protection (like encryption of data stored). There are many layers to look at to be secure enough. The way I see it, you're putting yourself more at risk if you do not distinguish what requires private/incognito mode (it could even be Facebook), how often you should clear things up (like browsing history, caches) on your device/computer, etc.
  - nkkollaw 9y ago
    > This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Maybe I didn't word it correctly, I meant that all it's good for is to hide porn from your spouse. If you think incognito mode protects you in any way, than it's you who is naive. If anyone really wanted to track you, they can use your IP and see every single page you've visited. Even the size of your window is enough to track you. Tor is the only tool I know that you can use if you don't want to be tracked. > We live in a world where even tiny things can be taken out of context, manipulated and used against us either by the people close to us, or the places we work for, or even the government. Sure, but I think that we shouldn't be paranoid about it (please don't hack my account to prove a point :-)). What is the actual risk that your government will track your browser and use a tiny thing against you? I wear seatbelts because the risk of an accident is high, I don't wear a helmet to protect my head in case a small meteorite hits me. I don't think any government or anyone has the right to spy on anyone else, and organizations should work to prevent that, but I think a lot of it is hype. We live in a world where people post pictures on Facebook of themselves drunk, doing drugs and showing off things they stole, all while leaving harsh, racist, hateful comments. I would be worried more about ourselves leaving ever-lasting indications we're idiots on social media, more than about governments spying on us to get evidence to frame us.
bigbugbag 9y ago
But it's been pointed out in the top comment that the browser itself includes a tracking and reporting antifeature. So much for not worrying about tracking.
- pgeorgi 9y ago
  Depends on what it's tracking. There's a huge difference between "On average Focus was started 30 times a day by any single user" (which can inform resource allocation decisions for that project) and "bigbugbag was reading hacker news for 4 hours on Tuesday" (uhm. no.) They should be more transparent and upfront what they're collecting and why though.
  - jancsika 9y ago
    > They should be more transparent and upfront what they're collecting and why though. ... on their flagship browser. On their super-private, pinky-swear no tracking we-hate-ads-but-sure-do-love-you tiny browser, there should be... no tracking.
    - bigbugbag 9y ago
      I disagree with you. This should apply to their flagship browser too. Have you read the marketing crap they push about desktop firefox ? The 100% fresh, free-range, ethical browser More privacy Firefox doesn’t sell access to your personal information like other companies. From privacy tools to tracking protection, you’re in charge of who sees what. More freedom Following the pack isn’t our style. As part of the non-profit Mozilla, Firefox leads the fight to protect your online rights and champion an Internet that benefits everyone — not just a few. Then you click the privacy policy and you're welcomed with: Things you should know Firefox automatically connects to us and our service providers to provide updates, security, Snippets, Firefox Health Report, and other features. They also have a very loose definition of personal information: 'For us, "personal information" means information which identifies you, like your name or email address.' In times when we know a handful of cross-referenced metadata is enough to identify someone with a high level of success this is unacceptable from some entity who claims to champion privacy, online rights and user freedom. It only shows that either there are highly incompetent people in charge at mozilla or that they treat their users as too dumb to notice. IMHO there should no tracking by default on firefox desktop and opt-in for those who want to. Actually I'd even go further and say that no browser should include tracking and should block all trackers, analytics, commercial advertising and other PR words for surveillance, spying and profiling. With relatively few efforts this was something one could almost achieve, at least get closer to, through extensions in firefox. Mozilla put an end to it by dropping their extension engine.

nkkollaw 9y ago

I see. Honestly, most of the time when I use Google Searches is because I want to look for something, and I love when Google personalizes results so that if I type "Amiga" it knows it's the computer and I don't want to learn Spanish. Most importantly, I end up visiting lots of websites that I might want to comment on, visit later on/not lose if my phone dies, share with my girlfriend, etc. I personally don't see any advantage with incognito mode unless you want to hide porn from your spouse, so I guess I'm not the target for a browser created to be incognito-mode-only, and if I was I would probably use Tor, because they might not be share my info, but my IP is there for everyone to see along with the websites I visit.

bigbugbag 9y ago
Not everyone enjoys the filter bubble, but I tend to agree with you that always on incognito mode is annoying and does not protect your privacy except from your spouse. If you want to protect your privacy at least use tor.
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  Exactly. I don't see how private browsing can protect you in any way, while your IP is in the clear along with all HTTP requests you make.
barrkel 9y ago
I want to see the same internet as everyone else. The more my experience is customized to me, the more disconnected I am from people who aren't like me, and the more our views will diverge over time. Ultimately it leads to bad outcomes; Trump, or possibly eventually civil war. So I am against too much automatic hidden customisation. You might think that's hyperbole. I don't. I'm deadly serious; I think something worse than Trump is coming down the tracks because of an increasingly divided polis, and it's divided because of atomisation of world perspective. Filter bubbles driven by hidden preferences are directly responsible for shielding people from unpleasant perspectives, on both sides.
- abtinf 9y ago
  Everyone else is getting a customized internet view. Using Google through a private browser ensures you see an internet seen by nobody else.
  - walterbell 9y ago
    An internet seen by other private browsers.
newscracker 9y ago
> I personally don't see any advantage with incognito mode unless you want to hide porn from your spouse,... This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Tor (not Torbrowser) is very different from incognito/private browsing. Even for your own use, it's another layer of defense to reduce the storage of information on the device about whatever you've been up to. Certainly porn is not the only topic that can polarize people and have them assume things about you. We live in a world where even tiny things can be taken out of context, manipulated and used against us either by the people close to us, or the places we work for, or even the government. You may share a device with someone or allow someone to borrow it. You may have your device stolen while having minimal or no passcode or other protection (like encryption of data stored). There are many layers to look at to be secure enough. The way I see it, you're putting yourself more at risk if you do not distinguish what requires private/incognito mode (it could even be Facebook), how often you should clear things up (like browsing history, caches) on your device/computer, etc.
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  > This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Maybe I didn't word it correctly, I meant that all it's good for is to hide porn from your spouse. If you think incognito mode protects you in any way, than it's you who is naive. If anyone really wanted to track you, they can use your IP and see every single page you've visited. Even the size of your window is enough to track you. Tor is the only tool I know that you can use if you don't want to be tracked. > We live in a world where even tiny things can be taken out of context, manipulated and used against us either by the people close to us, or the places we work for, or even the government. Sure, but I think that we shouldn't be paranoid about it (please don't hack my account to prove a point :-)). What is the actual risk that your government will track your browser and use a tiny thing against you? I wear seatbelts because the risk of an accident is high, I don't wear a helmet to protect my head in case a small meteorite hits me. I don't think any government or anyone has the right to spy on anyone else, and organizations should work to prevent that, but I think a lot of it is hype. We live in a world where people post pictures on Facebook of themselves drunk, doing drugs and showing off things they stole, all while leaving harsh, racist, hateful comments. I would be worried more about ourselves leaving ever-lasting indications we're idiots on social media, more than about governments spying on us to get evidence to frame us.

bigbugbag 9y ago

But it's been pointed out in the top comment that the browser itself includes a tracking and reporting antifeature. So much for not worrying about tracking.

pgeorgi 9y ago
Depends on what it's tracking. There's a huge difference between "On average Focus was started 30 times a day by any single user" (which can inform resource allocation decisions for that project) and "bigbugbag was reading hacker news for 4 hours on Tuesday" (uhm. no.) They should be more transparent and upfront what they're collecting and why though.
- jancsika 9y ago
  > They should be more transparent and upfront what they're collecting and why though. ... on their flagship browser. On their super-private, pinky-swear no tracking we-hate-ads-but-sure-do-love-you tiny browser, there should be... no tracking.
  - bigbugbag 9y ago
    I disagree with you. This should apply to their flagship browser too. Have you read the marketing crap they push about desktop firefox ? The 100% fresh, free-range, ethical browser More privacy Firefox doesn’t sell access to your personal information like other companies. From privacy tools to tracking protection, you’re in charge of who sees what. More freedom Following the pack isn’t our style. As part of the non-profit Mozilla, Firefox leads the fight to protect your online rights and champion an Internet that benefits everyone — not just a few. Then you click the privacy policy and you're welcomed with: Things you should know Firefox automatically connects to us and our service providers to provide updates, security, Snippets, Firefox Health Report, and other features. They also have a very loose definition of personal information: 'For us, "personal information" means information which identifies you, like your name or email address.' In times when we know a handful of cross-referenced metadata is enough to identify someone with a high level of success this is unacceptable from some entity who claims to champion privacy, online rights and user freedom. It only shows that either there are highly incompetent people in charge at mozilla or that they treat their users as too dumb to notice. IMHO there should no tracking by default on firefox desktop and opt-in for those who want to. Actually I'd even go further and say that no browser should include tracking and should block all trackers, analytics, commercial advertising and other PR words for surveillance, spying and profiling. With relatively few efforts this was something one could almost achieve, at least get closer to, through extensions in firefox. Mozilla put an end to it by dropping their extension engine.