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Two little-appreciated privacy features in Safari not mentioned in the article: Each private browsing tab has its own cookie / data bucket[1]; and Private bro

Two little-appreciated privacy features in Safari not mentioned in the article: Each private browsing tab has its own cookie / data bucket[1]; and Private browsing tabs and windows are preserved across restarts. (This is optional and can be configured to forget them upon restart.) These make it practical to use private browsing for nearly all browsing, which isn't really the case in other browsers, where private browsing is clearly designed as an occasional-use thing. (And of course if you use private browsing for most things, you can still open regular windows for sites where you want to stay logged in.) [1] If a link or script in a tab opens a new tab or window, then they share the same cookie bucket. This preserves compatibility with sites that require such a flow.

gjsman-1000 2y ago
Not only that, but every private tab has its own proxy connection. You can see this if you turn off the iCloud Relay’s default setting of trying to find servers near your area - one tab will be in Texas, another in Tennessee.
b5 2y ago
Private browsing tabs and windows are preserved across restarts. (This is optional and can be configured to forget them upon restart.) I am totally stumped – how do you enable this on the Mac? I can’t find the option at all, and Google is no help.
- jeff_tyrrill 2y ago
  In Settings, on the General tab, for "Safari opens with", select either "All windows from last session" or "All non-private windows from last session".
1oooqooq 2y ago
> each private tab is isolated google relations with Firefox always prevented this. they explained to users that having 4 containers was good enough and screwed up every step of the ui implementation.
- sabellito 2y ago
  My goodness the container UX is tragic. I thought it was just an initial release, they would make it better It's been more than year. I can't even recommend it to non-tech friends because I have trouble using it myself.
  - 1oooqooq 2y ago
    4years by now
- botanical 2y ago
  If I'm not mistaken, all Firefox tabs are cookie isolated: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cookie-protection-standard-mode https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cooki... Containers are no longer necessary unless you're logging into the same site with multiple accounts.
  - jeff_tyrrill 2y ago
    They're isolated by website but the tabs are not isolated from each other, like in Safari (in private browsing). This distinction matters, if you primarily use private browsing, and have lots of tabs open from a site (say, Wikipedia, or Reddit, or pick a social networking service you don't want to track you by cookie[1]) - that particular website will know all the different tabs are from the same user potentially over a long stretch of time if at least one of those tabs remains open. [1] Ad networks also track by IP address, so you need to take measures there too.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      On the other hand it does have container tabs which reduce the need for private browsing mode a lot and is great for long standing isolated sessions <3

gjsman-1000 2y ago

Not only that, but every private tab has its own proxy connection. You can see this if you turn off the iCloud Relay’s default setting of trying to find servers near your area - one tab will be in Texas, another in Tennessee.

b5 2y ago

Private browsing tabs and windows are preserved across restarts. (This is optional and can be configured to forget them upon restart.) I am totally stumped – how do you enable this on the Mac? I can’t find the option at all, and Google is no help.

jeff_tyrrill 2y ago
In Settings, on the General tab, for "Safari opens with", select either "All windows from last session" or "All non-private windows from last session".

1oooqooq 2y ago

> each private tab is isolated google relations with Firefox always prevented this. they explained to users that having 4 containers was good enough and screwed up every step of the ui implementation.

sabellito 2y ago
My goodness the container UX is tragic. I thought it was just an initial release, they would make it better It's been more than year. I can't even recommend it to non-tech friends because I have trouble using it myself.
- 1oooqooq 2y ago
  4years by now
botanical 2y ago
If I'm not mistaken, all Firefox tabs are cookie isolated: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cookie-protection-standard-mode https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cooki... Containers are no longer necessary unless you're logging into the same site with multiple accounts.
- jeff_tyrrill 2y ago
  They're isolated by website but the tabs are not isolated from each other, like in Safari (in private browsing). This distinction matters, if you primarily use private browsing, and have lots of tabs open from a site (say, Wikipedia, or Reddit, or pick a social networking service you don't want to track you by cookie[1]) - that particular website will know all the different tabs are from the same user potentially over a long stretch of time if at least one of those tabs remains open. [1] Ad networks also track by IP address, so you need to take measures there too.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    On the other hand it does have container tabs which reduce the need for private browsing mode a lot and is great for long standing isolated sessions <3