this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Firefox

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All the incognito browser windows share the same "session" in Firefox. So say you open an Incognito window to browse Facebook or something, then you open another Incognito window, this new incognito window is linked to the previous incognito window, meaning you are logged into Facebook at that new Incognito window as well. This is because, as I explained before, all the incognito windows share the same "session"

The only way to clear incognito window is to close ALL of them and then create a new incognito window. You dont have to close the main non incognito Firefox window though, just close all the incognito windows. Then open a new one, now your previous session is destroyed and you are new again.

You may know it but its not that common knowledge as it should have been

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Maybe it's because I have a programmer mentality but this is exactly the behavior I would expect, otherwise the "open link in new window"won't work reliably, all popups would fail and you couldn't "tear" off a tab in a new window

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, safari in ipadOS (that's the only place I use safari) works the same way, and it's as annoying as it sounds.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Though I must say as a dev, being able to use 3 different safari windows for 3 different accounts to test is wonderful, instead of needing multiple browsers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox multi account containers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

OT but how is your account from 400 years in the future

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use containers for everything. Best thing Mozilla has ever done.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I just wish the containers were by domain by default and automatic.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (3 children)

For me that behavior was expected. E.g. if I open a link from incognito in a new window, then it obviously should also use incognito but share its context with the previous sessions, otherwise it would require you to login over and over again. If an independently opened incognito window behaved different from a link-click window, I'd find it even more confusing.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would say it should be the opposite. Separate windows should be independent but tabs on other hand can share same session.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

yeah that seems intended and obvious to me as well

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

In fact, that's a good way to understand the behavior. Log into a site. Visit the site in your other window. If they share a session, you'll be logged in. If they don't, you'll be logged out.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

IDK how else it could work.

Anyone who understands what a private window actually does, would expect it to work this way.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (5 children)

seems counter intuitive.. each incognito window should be separated into their containers.

seems like a good idea to take that container addon and apply that to incognito.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

I think what you are looking for is Containers. FF uses containers to wall things off from each other, whereas Private sessions are still all sandboxed together, as you discovered. I know this is quite different from how Safari, for example, handles things, but you can accomplish the same things, just a little differently.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

It's not even called incognito in FF.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Why would you ever sign into anything in incognito mode. Doesn't that pretty much defeat the whole purpose?

[–] SuddenDownpour 23 points 1 year ago

There are legitimate reasons. You may have a main account in a given page which you usually want to log into automatically, but at certain occasions you might want to use an alt without your browser forgetting to log into your main by default. A more specific example of this would be someone who has an alt account for NSFW stuff in social media because they want to be able to browse in their main without risk of genitals popping up on their screen while they're on the bus or using the phone next to family.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I use it when I need to log into a computer at work with a personal account, so that I know I'm logged out when I close the window.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I use it to test that I've set up an authentication system correctly without a cookie bias, among other uses

Set everything up in main > confirm tests pass > log in from incognito with password vault to make sure the auto test didn't lie.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

anonymity is not the only usage for incognito, and frankly it doesn’t even make you very anonymous on its own

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Logging into alt accounts without logging out of main

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Signing in to a service would defeat incognito mode if its function were to make you incognito towards the websites you visit.

But since that's not what it does, I don't see why it would defeat anything.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It’s the same with Chrome isn’t it?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago
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[–] p0q 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For Firefox users who don't know - try right clicking on the new tab button...

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

That's not that worrying to me.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

As a "I just care somewhat about privacy because the NSA sees everything anyway" guy... How the fuck are you all using your browsers and for what? HOW can this lack of knowledge cost anyone anything?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

One example of being more careful about privacy that came up for me recently is that I have gmail as my primary mail and I use google docs for storing a lot of things I use for work. If I also want to block youtube ads and they say it's against their TOS, they can theoretically close my gmail and docs for violating it.

They might not and I haven't necessarily seen anything saying they're moving in that direction, but since last month I've been exclusively watching yt either through proxy sites and apps or opening it in incog windows where I'm logged out.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

go on pornhub

dont close the window, just hide it afterwards

join a meeting, share the screen and type in „po” because you need to go to a website starting with po

pornhub shows up

get fired because youre jerking of with company property

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Use profiles instead of incognito when possible. You can have profiles, with different privacy settings, for anything.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I've started to realize that temporary tab containers do almost everything that I used to use incognito mode for, and more.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is so counterintuitive and so important. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For reference, private mode in Safari protects you from this.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

"protects" you from this? Honestly, this is exactly how I'd expect incognito mode to work.

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