At one time, it was tough to cover your tracks after visiting some, uh, questionable sites, but now it’s getting easier than ever. According to Mozilla, Firefox is joining Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome in providing its users with a “private mode” that will not collect any of your browsing history or cookies in the upcoming release of Firefox 3.1.
Much like Chrome, users will be able to open a separate window in Firefox 3.1 that will let them browse the Web in any way they see fit without worrying about the wife or kids entering the History menu and seeing why they spent the last hour in the office with the door locked.
But Mozilla’s name for the feature (which was originally planned for Firefox 3 but never made it in) is a bit of a misnomer. Upon entering “private mode,” all your information will still be accessible to the sites you access and your ISP will be able to track you wherever you go. In other words, you’re only hiding where you’ve been from those at home.
Firefox 3.1 is still in Alpha 2, but the company said that a Beta release should be made available in the next few weeks.
See all
Post
I needed this feature in college!
Comon guys. It will make it more difficult for people like us who want to track our wife and children behavior…. There must be a secret way to check it.
That’s what parental controls software like Net Nanny is for. It works for any browser too.
With Net Nanny you can view the websites visited from your home or from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Its funny the way this feature is being promoted in IE, Chrome and now FireFox… PORN Mode !!!
PORN is billion dollar market… it seems the dollar is finally showing up.
lol … this will be a big favorite with the husbands of the world ! LOL
Darin
OMG Much like Chrome? Much like Chrome??
This feature was in IE8 which launched way before this half-baked-Koogle-made-0.7%-market-share-browser! And by the way, am I the only one who thinks Chrome and Rust have pretty much the same color? Koogle Rust. I like the sounds of it.
Somebody is a bit sore. Are you a envious mac user? Yeah, fair enough IE had it first but seriously your retort was a tad retarded.
Actually ZoneAlarm ForceField had it first
http://www.zonealarm.com/store.....kgx83Bfqpc!-1619682406!-1062696904!7551!7552!NONE?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en
do you have some sand in your vagina?
I need this!
That’s great. It will help a lot in schools and other educational institutions!
I love this. YOU love this.
good for all the young bucks and married guys
Not for porn only, this feature helps when you are using a pc which not yours.
no. For porn only!
Cute title but I can also see where this would come in handy at work and other public places where you don’t want your personal information stored on a computer that isn’t yours. Too many people don’t remember to clear those after leaving a public or shared computer (and having done something like online banking which is also a stupid idea).
A welcome move for those in favour of privacy.
You state that the name “private mode” is a misnomer as you are only hiding things from people at your end.
I’m certain that with the other browsers it is exactly the same. These tools will not cover your tracks completely from everyone as their are reasons that certain Organisations need to know what you are up to
Mike Ashworth
Marketing Coach and Consultant
Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, UK
ha ha. this title is funny.
LOL that would be cool I guess.
It would be good if they could put a password on this feature. I can already see both of my boys figuring it out and using this function for thier own gain. This may also be a bad idea for teens going to sites that may not be porn but how to attack your school. I know I amay be going overboard but all angles need to be looked at.
Funny how people convince themselves “there’s nothing wrong with porn” and yet their actions say they believe something else entirely. Sounds like there’s some self-denial about hypocrisy to me.
If what you believe is supposed to be right for you, then why does there appear to be a generally-accepted moral code everywhere in the world that contradicts the things we personally want to believe? And where did this moral code come from? The leftover traces of primitive, outdated belief systems? Then why does it still bother you… and your significant other?
Where does this moral code come from?
Everyone poops too. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we don’t put our dookie on display.
Maybe you don’t: http://www.ratemypoo.com (don’t do it)
lol. nice
still, I’m guessing that when porn is considered wrong/offensive, it’s not because you forgot to clear your cookies
Nice to see a post from Michael on Twitter that’s NOT about TC50!
w00t! - welcome back Techcrunch!
for a father standpoint it is good & bad feature.. Good if Dad is using it, BAD if Kids/Wife have it??
So what your saying is you want to be able to track your wife’s surfing patterns? Do you check her email, go into your phone records and I don’t know track her movements on her Iphone.
Finally, I can browse TechCrunch without the embarassment.
Is it me, or do people not know about CCleaner?
I know what it is great little program.
Parent’s should be aware of there router’s log functions and it’s ability to block some content. A savvy parent will not be deterred by this it will not hide where you have been from someone who knows what they are doing. It will be nice to hide your information from outsiders.
I like the idea but not because my spouse might catch me doing something. I’m an artist anyway it is called research for me
Got to keep the life/gesture drawing drawing skills sharp.
Great everyone can use our new site without being caught:
PornVideoFetcher DOT com
LOL… yeah, doing things like using such “stealth” modes in Chrome or otherwise, and/or setting preferences to disallow cookies and automatically clear all private data upon closing sessions etc. in browsers, shield one not from one’s ISPs. If one wants that one has to take extra steps one basically needs to start thinking like a criminal when viewing sensitive content moreover be willing to go through the trouble i.e. don’t connect to the ‘net over one’s own direct network (tap someone else’s, leaving as few personally identifiable footprints as possible)… i.e. try to make it so one’s activities could only be potentially reconstructed per subpoena(s).
All the best web design tricks I learned from porn sites.
So how do Google Analytics, AdWords Conversion Tracker, and everything else that uses cookies to track repeat visits to a site keep working when everyone clears cookies at the end of each session with “privacy mode”?
That sucks for all the porn webmasters out there who get sales commissions via cookies. Now all the cash goes straight to the companies.
You can already clear all you history and private data in firefox, just a different twist that you can specify a certain window to stealth (if I interpret correctly) no real news here…..
it’s not the same. “Stealth mode” (”porn mode”) doesn’t keep any of the data once the window is closed. No history, no cookies, no nuthin. Choosing “Clear Private Data” means that your data was stored somewhere on your hard drive at some point.
I wonder if we’re going to see a rise in arrests of pervs and pedophiles who think they can erase where they’ve been just by using private mode…
Doesn’t Mozilla have better features to work on?
http://www.SchoolShift.com
Your Exprience. Your Life. Your School.
well.. is the name of this ‘private’ feature final?
Safari calls it “Private Browsing” … so theirs is a misnomer, too. (There is nothing you can do in any browser now or ever to prevent your ISP from sniffing… I’m not sure you make that clear enough in the blog post, making me wonder if you designed it to intentionally invalidate FireFox in some way.) That’s right ladies, even whilst using the oh-so-popular Chrome your ISP can see exactly what you are doing at all times. (And if you are Comcast customer, like me, then you can rest assured they do just that.)
umm…there are wives and gfs out there who would also love this. we do watch porn too…and do it “alone”
I second that!
One of the shortcomings is that it doesn’t protect downloaded files. If you’re looking for a porn browser that automatically quarantines your ’stash’ you need HeatSeek (http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/11/porn-browser-heatseek-launches-yeah-porn-browser/).
Full frontal nerdity
Don’t they have better do to?
Ctrl+Shift+Del people.
What firefox should focus on should be the speed/memory management. That’s the main advantage Chrome seem to have right now.
The end of this article is wrong “your ISP can track you wherever you go”. An IP address indicates nothing more than activity, not the identity of its user. IP addresses are child’s play to scan then hijack (for bandwidth purposes etc.) so the implication that an IP address’s activity identifies its purported user is completely inaccurate. It’s more likely your IP address was being used by a gamer in South Korea or Bulgaria.
It would be nice to have something that would encrypt all the way to the ISP, so we can use it for more then just PORN
I’m a bit techno challenged…can someone help me out??? Are you saying that even though someone will use the private mode…that it can still be tracked? By who?
yvtfangz aute ydanmzftg jquzgxotp woch ywxkdg hzglqt
I’m a bit techno challenged…can someone help me out??? Are you saying that even though someone will use the private mode…that it can still be tracked? By who?
Not really sure why hiding porn from our wives is considered good or admirable…
Maybe they’re hiding porn from you too. Isn’t it great to have a trusting relationship?
It’s so chauvinistic to keep equating the word “users” with “husbands”! Yes, keep telling yourselves women have nothing to do with porn…
Wow, that’s kinda nice. But I’d never have to use it
I think its normal to watch porn with your girlfriend or wife.
Women like porn just as much as we do.
Charles Boarden
charles.boarden@homedepot.com
Home Depot IT
Indeed
I’m looking forward to using this private mode. You never want to authorities knowing what pics your lookin at.
Charles Boarden
charles.boarden@homdepot.com
women love porn just as much as men i know this for a fact as a am a woman and love love love porn