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Is Private Browsing Really Private?

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Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#11

Post by spaceboy »

Probably relevant: "Google removes secret agent warning from Chrome’s incognito mode" https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/app/...

    “Pages you view in this tab won’t appear in your browser history
    or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies,
    on your device after you close all incognito tabs.
    Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved,
    however. Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people,
    servers, or software. Be wary of surveillance by secret agents
    or people standing behind you.”
The new version is:

    Pages you view in incognito tabs won’t stick around in your browser’s
    history, cookie store, or search history after you’ve closed all of your
    incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept.
    Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, software,
    or people standing behind you.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#12

Post by throwaway2016a »

"DuckDuckGo is the search engine that doesn’t track you." so obviously this article has marketing lean.

While private browsing is not actually private I feel going so far as to say it does not stop websites from collecting info on you is maybe a bit too far.

The site can still collect information about you, yes. But unless you sign in while in private browsing or the site is using some sort of user-agent / IP trickery it won't be automatically tied to your accounts. None of the cookies or local storage are shared across private/non private browsing.

Personally, I use it mostly to see what websites look like when I'm not logged in or if I want to access something that can only be accessed while logged out without actually logging out which is surprisingly common.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#13

Post by ams6110 »

spaceboy wrote: post #11

Probably relevant: "Google removes secret agent warning from Chrome’s incognito mode" https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/app/... “Pages you view in this tab won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your device after you close all incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however. Going incog…

sigh nobody has a sense of humor anymore.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#14

Post by natch »

eknight15 wrote: post #7
camiller wrote: post #3

Not really private, just keeps your local machine clean. Despite TeMPOraL's labeling it "porn mode" my most common use case is if I need to log into my Google account from my wife's laptop I'll use an Incognito mode window in Chrome so that I don't have to log her out of her Google account.

Is there a reason you don't use the people switcher? https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824?co=GENIE.Pl...

I see you do UX at Google. Thank you for asking users questions like this (I really hope you were asking sincerely, not rhetorically). Please talk to users more.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#15

Post by AdamSC1 »

gcp wrote: post #4

The "Most common misconceptions about Private Browsing" part is actually misleading for Firefox users, because that does apply Tracking Protection in private browsing mode. So some of the top misconceptions aren't, at least not if you use Firefox. (Yes, yes, it can never be perfect, but I don't believe that invalidates the point)

DuckDuckGo employee here - I ran the survey we used in this.

We had a separate question for users who noted that they used Firefox that spoke to the specific cases for that browser.

The final whitepaper is browser agnostic, and these are the top misconceptions overall, but results were split out in the research phase to account for this.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#16

Post by AdamSC1 »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #12

"DuckDuckGo is the search engine that doesn’t track you." so obviously this article has marketing lean. While private browsing is not actually private I feel going so far as to say it does not stop websites from collecting info on you is maybe a bit too far. The site can still collect information about you, yes. But unless you sign in while in private browsing or the site is using some sort of user-agent / IP tricker…

There are plenty of things a browser can see without being logged in.

Consider checking this page: http://webkay.robinlinus.com/

Private Browsing simply prevents cookies and nothing else, and for the average person we find that is not what's expected from something defined as "private" browsing.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#17

Post by kedean »

eknight15 wrote: post #7
camiller wrote: post #3

Not really private, just keeps your local machine clean. Despite TeMPOraL's labeling it "porn mode" my most common use case is if I need to log into my Google account from my wife's laptop I'll use an Incognito mode window in Chrome so that I don't have to log her out of her Google account.

Is there a reason you don't use the people switcher? https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824?co=GENIE.Pl...

I don't use it because it requires that I switch back. My wife won't be bothered to deal with learning the people-switcher (there's no reason she should, it's really her laptop in question), so using incognito means that once I close the window, it's clean again. It's a lot easier to remember to close the window than it is to remember to switch back to her account.

The option I finally chose to go with, is to install firefox on her computer as well. Firefox is for me, Chrome is for her. I'm an FF guy anyway. The main UX problem stands, though, it's too easy to be the wrong person.

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#19

Post by AdamSC1 »

sjbase wrote: post #18

This all seems likely to be true, but the source being Duck Duck Go calls the results & methodology into question. I'd love to see an independent researcher confirm these findings.

Hey there, DuckDuckGo employee here.

Would love to know why you feel our affiliation calls that into question?

In the the whitepaper we disclose the full methodology, and each statistic has a margin of error calculated and added in. Feel free to review it - we're happy to answer questions!

Re: Is Private Browsing Really Private?

#20

Post by throwaway2016a »

AdamSC1 wrote: post #16
throwaway2016a wrote: post #12

"DuckDuckGo is the search engine that doesn’t track you." so obviously this article has marketing lean. While private browsing is not actually private I feel going so far as to say it does not stop websites from collecting info on you is maybe a bit too far. The site can still collect information about you, yes. But unless you sign in while in private browsing or the site is using some sort of user-agent / IP tricker…

There are plenty of things a browser can see without being logged in. Consider checking this page: http://webkay.robinlinus.com/ Private Browsing simply prevents cookies and nothing else, and for the average person we find that is not what's expected from something defined as "private" browsing.

I'm a full stack web developer. I'm well aware of what the HTTP headers and Javascript methods can expose even while in private. I was oversimplifying fingerprinting a bit.
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