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> Staying with the 2005 definition of private mode as only being ephemeral, such as Chrome’s Incognito Mode, simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Yes I cannot agree
by kccqzy 2y ago
> Staying with the 2005 definition of private mode as only being ephemeral, such as Chrome’s Incognito Mode, simply doesn’t cut it anymore.
Yes I cannot agree more. Personally this shift in people's expectations of Private Browsing or Incognito Browsing came in a way that felt sudden. The recent lawsuit about Google tracking you in Incognito mode was absolutely dumbfounding to me: of course websites can still track you! If only people still remembered the origins of this feature in 2005 (or 2008 in Chrome's case). But even on HN the opinion was pretty split. It is indeed clear that it is now time to change what private browsing means.
However, I don't think this is going to stay this way for long. The word "private" when it comes to computing has many varied definitions and it all depends on who the information is made private to. In the extreme case, if your threat model is privacy from eavesdroppers on the network or the ISP, then a browser can easily claim any HTTPS connection is private enough; the majority of browsing is already private browsing. If it is privacy from others using the same machine, then this older private browsing already works. But I cannot help but feel that a few years down the road people are going to consciously or subconsciously substitute yet another definition of privacy.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y ago> substitute yet another definition I'm not entirely surprised they got this "wrong" given that the question was, "What should we call it?" Naming things (correctly, "future-proof"-ly) is hard.
- Aachen 2y agoIt's also not as if smart lamps have brains, as if "we use cookies" is about cookies (it's about agreeing to 178 privacy policies using localStorage and canvas fingerprinting unapologetically), as if cloud computing runs in the sky (ironically, in said clouds, you often can't use those services properly), as if a home button have something to do with your house, and so on and so forth. But, surprise: private navigation mode doesn't give you a free VPN or joins you to an onion routing dark web or something! Why would any consumer expects a computer term to be literally what it says, rather than being like the real-world thing they're named after Naming things may be hard, but in addition, this isn't even a bad name. The popular colloquial name at the time (porn hiding button, or maybe that was only because I was a student when it was introduced) could hardly be seriously used, of course it is called something related to not leaving traces on the computer you're using
- stranded22 2y agoNo, no, no! Private browsing was so your gf wouldn’t find out about the engagement rings you were looking at!