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Private browsing: it's not so private
- alttag 15y agoReminds me of the EFF's "Panopticlick" [1] page, which highlights that browser uniqueness can be inferred from not just the browser/OS user agent info and the combination of plugins (as the article points out), but also the available fonts, screen size, and time zone. This doesn't include any geo-URL lookup services. 1: https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/
- icefox 15y agoPrivate browsing I don't think is even the correct solution to the problem. Users that use private browsing don't want others that use their computer to see what they have done. Illusions that they are hidden from servers with most browsers (Arora's crypto fork was the best I have seen) "private browsing" is silly. From http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2009/08/next-generation-desktop-web-browser.html http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2009/08/next-generation-d... "Private Browsing mode as it is today if flawed. It was best highlighted when FireFox 3.5 users were horrified that there porn sites were showing up in the location bar search because they had bookmarked them in a "hidden" folder. When using Private Browsing it destroys much of the value that a browser can provide (history, bookmarks, autocompleting in the location bar, disk cache!) while not actually fulfilling the feature the user wants. Users don't care if they [themselves] run into their porn, they just don't want anyone else to ever see it." The only alternative I know of is Netscapes multiple profiles, but the cost of switching was _way_ too high and the profiles were not encrypted. The second best is a Chrome book. This is a ripe place for innovation.