Safari 4 can't get any privacy

Question

No thanks to apple for adding more, and easier, ways for other people to access my browsing history - now its just by a click of the button in the menu bar - and you can't turn it off. Now I will be spending even more time finding and deleting all those websites that I want to look at but don't want anyone else to know I've looked at. Its not so much a personal computer anymore - seems like very impersonal to me. grrr

Answer 1

keats2010 wrote:
Have you tried turning on Private Browsing under Safari in the top menu?
But what are the consequences of Private Browsing? Does Private Browsing stop some of my web features or javascript from working when I'm trying to access a page that has java or Flash? Will my bank's website load ok etc? I guess I was a little worried it would stop the showing of the last page visited and if so then hopefully that won't stop some sites from functioning.
Is Private Browsing the best way to go all around? I wonder why it isn't the default.
I want to be able to use my browser to access sites that don't load well when I use Firefox with NoScript, such as bank sites, but I do not want my browsing history to stay in view constantly, and I'm also upset at seeing it want to "learn" my browsing habits and try to suggest sites for me without my setting it to do this. For this reason I will be setting Firefox or any other browser I feel is more private than Safari, possibly Camino, to be my default browser. I will only be using Safari when a site won't work without it, same as when I used to settle for Internet Explorer on my windows computer when Firefox didn't work.
I'm also horrified I can't get that Google search bar out of my browser. Google has unabashedly intrusive privacy policies and I don't want Google keeping tabs of every site I visit. I'm not sure if Google has access to info of every place I go if I never put any text into the Google search bar or how far into bed with Google Apple has now gone but I'm afraid of the privacy invasion possibilities.
Perhaps Google gets no info if I do not type anything into the google search bar. I wish I could drag it off the menu bar however. If I want to go to google, I know how to type google.com for crying out loud.
I wonder how much I can trust Apple to make a commitment to protecting our privacy considering who it has as partners. AT&T for that matter, re: iPhone, is not known as having a very good privacy record -- they allowed the US government to snoop on all their customers according to a PBS special this past year (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/ ). I use the iPhone and ATT but am a little nervous of the privacy attitudes of ATT and also google. I hope Apple will hold the line on its partners re: privacy in products like iPhone and Safari that work with its partners regardless of their tendencies to disrespect privacy.
Does anyone know if the fact that this software wants to learn what my favorite sites are affects outside parties including Apple, Google, and/or others possibly getting access to info on my browsing habits? If i allow the Top Sites page to work, will it just be something I MYSELF have access to the info on or are the URLs of my favorite sites reported to Apple, Google, or others?
Does hitting RESET clear things out in this regard? I'd like to use these tools if I felt that my computer wasn't a big spyware tool for outside entities, commercial interests and governmental interests to mine data from (not unlike what the Iranian government is currently doing to their citizens using American spyware products).
Message was edited by: rivmo
Message was edited by: rivmo