What Is Firefox's Private Browsing?

Firefox's private browsing mode was introdued in Firefox 3.5.

Mozilla Firefox's private browsing feature allows you to surf the Web without retaining information about your browsing activities within your Seb browser. Private browsing also limits the type of files that are saved to your computer. However, setting Firefox to private browsing mode does not eliminate all traces of your Internet activity from your Internet service provider or the visited websites themselves.

How It Works

Firefox's private browsing mode limits the amount of data that is saved on your computer when you browse the Internet. No records of your browsing are retained in Firefox's History menu, Recently Closed Tabs menu, the Downloads window or the address bar during private browsing. Data that you enter into forms, including password prompts, is also not saved and thus is not used as a source for the Firefox form autocomplete feature. Cookies and other temporary Internet files are not saved to your computer during a private browsing session.

Limitations

Certain limitations to the privacy are afforded when browsing in private mode. While your browsing information is not retained on your computer, your Internet service provider still has access to records of all websites and files that you access during private browsing. This is especially important to remember while browsing privately at work, as your employer will still have full access to your browsing history. In addition, each website that you access will retain a record of your visit to a site.

Certain types of files can still be saved to your local computer while in a private browsing session. If you bookmark a page while browsing privately, that link will still appear in your bookmarks even when not in private browsing mode. Files that you download during private browsing will also stay on your computer, although records of the download will not be retained in the Firefox download window.

Turning Private Browsing On And Off

You can turn on private browsing by clicking "Tools" and then clicking "Start Private Browsing." The Tools menu is accessed by clicking the Firefox button in Firefox 4, and is accessed via the menu bar in earlier versions of Firefox. To end a private browsing session, click "Tools" and click "Stop Private Browsing."

You can also toggle private browsing on and off by holding the "Ctrl" and "Shift" keys and pressing the "P" key.

Setting Private Browsing as Default

You can set up your Firefox browser to allow private browsing mode if you never want your browsing history to be saved to your computer. To do this, click "Tools" and click "Options" to open the Firefox Options window. Click the Privacy tab and choose "Use custom settings for history" from the drop down menu. Click the check box next to "Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session" and click "OK" to set private browsing as your default Firefox mode.

References

• Mozilla Firefox: Private Browsing