Privacy has become an important concern to all users and people who want to know the web sites you have visited and your favorite pass words etc., is on the increase. It could be your suspicious spouse or over bearing parents. Mozilla Firefox 3.5 provides the feature of “Private Browsing” where your “History” will not be recorded. But as Mozilla says it will not make you “Anonymous” or should it be “Invisible”?.
When you browse the net in Private Browsing mode it will not retain the following information.
- Visited pages: No pages will be added to the list of sites in the History menu, the Library window’s History list, or the “Smart Location Bar’s” address list.
- Form and Search Bar entries: Nothing you enter into text boxes on web page forms or the “Search bar” will be added to the list of entries for “Form autocomplete”.
- Passwords: no passwords will be automatically filled in during the your Private Browsing session, and no new passwords will be saved.
- Download List entries: No files you download will remain in the list in the “Downloads window” after you turn off Private Browsing.
- Cookies: Files created by websites, that store information on your computer, such as your preferences when visiting that site (when a website has a “remember this” checkbox, it is using a cookie) will not be stored.
- Web cache files: No temporary Internet files or “cached” files from web pages will be saved until you turn off Private Browsing.
Note:
- If you create new “Bookmarks” while using Private Browsing, they will not be removed when you stop Private Browsing.
- If you save files to your computer while using Private Browsing, those files will not be deleted when you stop Private Browsing. However, any files you open in an external application will be cleared from the system’s temporary folder, and none of the files you download will appear in the “Downloads window” list.
Turn on Private Browsing
To start a Private Browsing session:
- Click on the Tools menu and select Start Private Browsing
- The first time you turn on Private Browsing, Firefox will alert you that it will save your current windows and tabs for after you finish using Private Browsing. Click on “Start Private Browsing” to continue.
Put a check mark next to “Do not show this message again” if you do not want to receive this alert the next time you turn on Private Browsing.
- You will then enter Private Browsing mode, and the Private Browsing information screen will appear.
When browsing in Private Browsing mode, the Firefox window’s title will show (Private Browsing) during your session.
Turn off Private Browsing
To end a Private Browsing session:
- Click on the Tools menu and select the Private Browsing entry , which will show a check mark to indicate that Private Browsing is currently enabled.
- The windows and tabs you were using when you enabled Private Browsing will appear, and you can use Firefox normally. The Firefox window’s title will no longer show (Private Browsing) when Private Browsing is off.
Start Firefox in a private browsing session
There is a setting in the OptionsPreferences window which will automatically enable Private Browsing whenever you start Firefox.
- At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the ToolsFirefoxEdit menu, and select Options…Preferences….
- Select the Privacy panel.
- Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.
- Click to select Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session.
- Click OK to close the Options windowClick Close to close the Preferences windowClose the Preferences window
