Safari 4 & Private Browsing fails to work

Safari 4 & Private Browsing fails to work.
I check Private Browsing, accept what it says, and when I quit I expect that it will clear all that I want it to. But it is still there 100%. Any one see this problem?
-Apple //GS

Hi
You're welcome.
Which plist did you trash?
To bad I can't keep that checked 100% of the time.
Unfortunately, Private Browsing is intended to be a "conscious choice". You can add an Apple Script to open Safari automatically in Private Browsing. Here's direction from MacWorld.

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IPhone 5 Safari Faking "Private Browsing" Mode

I recently posted in another forum about how suspicious click-through ads were appearing on my iPhone 5 within certain media web sites. Since I have never run Safari without “private browsing” mode being on; have always had “limit ad tracking” turned on; third-party cookies blocked; and have geolocation and location services (for Safari) turned off, that should have been impossible. While the discussion participants had come up with some interesting possibilities, I realized that I had neglected to check the “Website Data” screen in iPhone’s Setup. So I just checked the web site storage. Got an unpleasant surprise when I was greeted with a screen-full of URL’s beginning with www.stayinvisible.com and carbonite.com. Tapped on “show all sites” and 100 or more URL’s scrolled by, among them many Apple web sites. Even found a competitor’s web site URL that should not have been there, since I’ve never visited their web site, nor any legitimate web site that would have hosted anything that would have set a cookie on this device.
Apple’s privacy policy with the current version of Safari for iPhone 5 (within IOS 7.1.2 11D257) is very clear:
"Private Browsing
When Private Browsing is enabled, Safari doesn’t remember the pages you visit, AutoFill information, and your open tabs aren’t stored in iCloud. Safari will also ask sites and their third party content providers (including advertisers) not to track you. Websites can’t modify information stored on your device, so services normally available at such sites may work differently until you turn off Private Browsing."
Apple stated that, “Websites can’t modify information stored on your device,…” yet I have in front of me proof that web sites CAN and DO modify information on my device while Safari’s “private browsing is on. This is very deceptive and a nasty way to treat customers who bought one of the most expensive PDA/smart phones on the market and now find that they have no web browsing security (Safari ignoring secure web site security certificate revocations, can’t detect bogus or malicious secure web sites), and apparently zero web browsing privacy, after Apple promised exactly the opposite.
Has anyone else finding that their web browsing security has been compromised with a recent vintage iPhone?

I’ve wiped the web cache several times since then. Several times I found more cookies in the web cache, at least once found over a hundred items, mostly for web sites I didn’t visit even once, but were all in my Safari bookmarks. Apparently, in addition to everything else going on, Apple appears to be rooting through my bookmarks without my permission.
Using Steve Gibson’s Cookie Forensics web page (https://www.grc.com/cookies/forensics.htm) I confirmed that web sites are able to save and retrieve cookie data from my iPhone with Private Browsing enabled. That violates Apple’s stated privacy policy.
The cookies that keep reappearing in the web cache, which also violates Apple’s stated privacy policy, apparently are leftovers from Safari crashes. I see five crashes in the past month, and crash logs for Safari going back to last year. Per my earlier post, after tapping the "delete" button, the cookies immediately disappeared, but then all came back at least once within a few seconds. That means IOS was hiding, and not deleting, the web cache when the "delete" button was tapped. The reappearing cookies are also only being hidden from the user, and become visible when a device crash prevents IOS from keeping the cookies hidden, since they've been in the web cache all the time.
I also see that other apps, like Podcasts, Stocks, and Weather are also writing or accessing items in the web cache, while “Private Browsing” mode has supposedly been “on.” The only thing “private” about “Private Browsing” mode is Apple deliberately hiding this activity from users.
Safari on IOS will allow web sites to track iPhone users regardless of an iPhone user’s device settings. Anyone who merely minimizes Safari between sessions, rather than killing the active Safari task, will find their device will act exactly the same whether “Private Browsing” is on or off. Safari might not prompt for, for example, a user name for a login, but if the web site stored a cookie with login info, it might already have you logged in (if a login were required for a particular page). And if a cookie were saved to the web cache after a device crash, Safari will again violate Apple's privacy policy and allow web sites to read and modify the cookies that were stored in the cache while "Private Browsing" mode were on. I confirmed that more than once.
Apple’s privacy policy for is a lie. Mobile Safari has no “Private Browsing Mode.”

Safari and app store fail to work after installing Maverick, what can I do?

Safari and app store fail to work after installing Maverick, what can I do?

Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utility) Repair Disk Permissions 2x. Then restart in Safe Mode and try both apps. Restart normally and post results.

HT1677 In iOS 7.1 I cannot find how to set Safari to Private browsing on iPad. Does anyone know?

I upgraded my iPad to iOS 7.1 and now the option to set Safari into Private browsing has disappeared. Any hints where this is moved now?

When top is white Private Browsing is off (tap to enlarge image)
When top is black Private Browsing is on.

Does Safari's private browsing prevent accidental downloads of all kinds? Such as spyware, firmware and all others?

I was browsing privately, but legally, (you can probably guess for what) when I accidentally clicked on a link that took me to a site of unspeakable and illegal horrors. I immediately closed the window, quit Safari, reset it cleared everything and then deleted it altogether. I am shaking right now. I have heard stories of the FBI raiding people's homes who become involved in sites like that one, intentionally or unintentionally. I pray to God that nothing was downloaded onto my laptop without my knowledge and I wanted to know if Safari's private browsing prevents downloads of that nature.
Thanks in advance,

Safari can keep your browsing history private. When you turn on private browsing, Safari doesn’t remember the pages you visit, your search history, or your AutoFill information, so your partner cannot see where you have been, but you must also remember to also turn off acceptance of cookies.
In all other respects Private Browsing is not as private as you might think:
http://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/how-to-make-safaris-private-browsing-fea ture-actually-private/
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=9054
and then Apple's own advice from here: http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/privacy_safari.html
"Note that the Private Browsing option does not prevent Safari from collecting cookies (the preference files automatically generated by many websites). The Reset Safari option clears all cookies. If you want to delete only certain ones, choose Preferences from the Safari menu, click the Security tab, and then click Show Cookies. You can select and delete individual cookies from the list that appears. Careful, though — if you’re a frequent web user, this list can be very, very long."
which is itself incomplete, the relevant part being 'If you want to delete only certain ones.
To that end it is useful to have Safari Cookies installed, which is the only cookie manager available for Safari:
http://sweetpproductions.com/safaricookies/
which automatically deletes all cookies not marked as 'favourites' when closing Safari. It does the same for Flash Cookies, but they are subject for themselves:
From this website:
http://machacks.tv/2009/01/27/flushapp-flash-cookie-removal-tool-for-os-x/
For those who do not know about Flash cookies, more properly referred to as Local Shared Objects (LSO), they operate in a similar way to regular browser cookies but are stored outside the purview of your browser, meaning you cannot delete them from within your browser, whether Safari, Firefox, Opera or any other. Typically they are issued from sites or 3rd party sites that contain Adobe Flash content. Since virtually all internet advertising is delivered in Flash, Google/Doudleclick and all other internet advertising companies are sure to be tracking your browsing behavior with Flash cookies. These companies can see you traverse the Internet as you come upon the plethora of sites that contain their embedded advertising. Check out the Wikipedia entry here.
In Mac OS X they are stored in the following location:
/User’s Home Folder/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects
The settings for the Flash cookies are stored in:
/User’s Home Folder/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys
In OS X Local Shared Objects, or Flash Cookies, are appended with a .sol suffix. Flush deletes all the Flash cookies (.sol) and their settings.
Flush can be downloaded from that page.
If you want to retain certain Flash cookies but not others, the excellent add-on for Safari called SafariCookies now includes a setting for automatically deleting flash cookies you don't want to retain, when Safari is shut down, in the same as it deals with ordinary cookies:
http://www.sweetpproductions.com/safaricookies/index.htm
which not only does that but much more equally useful stuff!
This article covers the issue in more depth:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/
Flash cookies are also known as 'Zombie Cookies' and are used by a number of firms, including Hulu, MTV, and Myspace. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the internet security firm Sophos, told BBC News that the source of the trouble was Adobe Flash itself, which he called "one of the weirdest programs on the planet".
"I think it's highly unlikely that these large companies have abused Flash cookies - which are different from browser cookies - with malicious intent," he said.
"I think it's much more likely that the vast majority of users are simply oblivious to the bizarre way in which Adobe allows them to configure the software."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10787882
And a more recent article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/technology/21cookie.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=flash&s t=cse
[b]Tracker cookies and the invisible web:[/b]
– tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior.
Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.
http://www.ghostery.com/about
This provides an extension to Safari (also available for other browsers) that shows you what data tracking is active on each web page you visit, and enables you to block them.

Reset Safari's Private Browsing Data

Without private browsing, if I visit a site such as reddit, login, and check the "remember me" box, Safari will effectively remember me until I do a Reset Safari with everything checked (this is the expected behavior). However, if I do exactly the same thing with Private Browsing enabled, Reset Safari stops working as expected for the data saved during a Private Browsing session. Worse, the data Safari saves during the Private Browsing session stays permanently, so quitting and restarting Safari does not fix the problem, as once I re-enable Private Browsing, reddit will remember me again.
I've tried everything I could to reset my Private Browsing data but apparently it keeps coming back. I have plugins and Java disabled, so it can't be Flash; I've even gone as far as to remove the ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and ~/Library/Safari directories entirely to no avail, reddit continues to remember me in Private Browsing no matter what I do and only when Private Browsing is enabled (which is kind of ironic).
Obviously I'm not concerned about reddit itself, but if reddit, which has no ill intent, can remember me, then I wonder how much data is being saved without my knowledge that I can't remove during a private browsing session.

Vaelian, I face this bug, too. Did you find any solution or reported the bug, already?
With Wireshark, I was able to verify that Apple simply sends the Cookie. Nobody (Flash, Java or HTML itself) did request the Cookie. The cache and cookies for private-browsing are kept as long as I am logged in. If you turn off private-browsing, Apple uses Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies and therefore, the cookie is not present. However, if you turn on private-browsing again, the Cookie magically appears! I checked my whole disk and could not find the private-brwosing cookie-store. I guess, it is stored somewhere in RAM.
My solution:
I logged-out via Apple menu. Alternatively, I restart the whole computer. Then, all cached data and the cookies of my private-browsing mode got deleted.
Side effects:
This private-browsing cookie-store gets corrupted after some time and I experienced the wildest errors on webpages. Again, logging out and logging in again, solved it.

Why are the localStorage objects unavailable to Safari while Private Browsing?

According to these two sites
http://caniuse.com/#feat=namevalue-storage
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/131587/how-can-a-web-site-determine-if- safari-private-browsing-is-turned-on
HTML5 localStorage objects aren't accessible when users visit sites that use them via a Safari Private Browsing window.
W3 indicated this is supported: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp as does https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/documentation/tools/conceptual/safari extensionguide/ExtensionSettings/Extensi…
I'm hoping to find or establish more information that confirms localStorage objects don't work in Safari Private Browsing windows. All other browsers my team has tried support this in private browsing mode.
Thanks for any and all assistance.
Message was edited by: cmcleod99

Maybe Google history is enabled.
*https://www.google.com/history/?hl=en&ctz=-120

Upgraded from 3.6 to 8. Firefox 8 keeps wiping out my stored passwords and sign-ons. I keep adding them back (key3.db & signons file). Also, private browsing doesn't work. I push that button and nothing happens.

I replace the key3.db and signons.sqlite files with older ones that i've saved. They work the first time I launch Firefox 8, but if I shut it down and then reopen the browser, they're wiped out again
Also, when I click on "private Browsing," nothing happens. No warning screen. It just sits there.
I'm on Vista Home premium. Been using Firefox and Thunderbird a number of years. Have never had an issue.

Make sure that you do not run Firefox in permanent Private Browsing mode.
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Private+Browsing
To see all History and Cookie settings, choose:
*Tools > Options > Privacy, choose the setting <b>Firefox will: Use custom settings for history</b>
*Deselect: [ ] "Always use private browsing mode"
Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
*Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Does Safari log Private Browsing toggling?

I have grounded my 14 year old son from gaming/surfing but he needs to use his MBA for a summer school course he is taking. I have had him clear his History in Safari and will be reviewing it regularly but if he toggles Private Browsing it won't show in the History. Is there a way to see if PB has been toggled in a log somewhere or can I disable the PB feature?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes that will be my last resort as I would have to create an administrator account for me then change his account to a user, etc. I was just looking for an easy way to make him take responsibility for his actions but not take it to where he has to ask for every move he makes on the computer. It would disable several places he needs to go to complete his assignments and after he got my permission to use those avenues he could cheat anyway.

Safari and Private Browsing

Is there a way to turn on private browsing permanently? I check my bank account every few days because I make a lot of transactions. It's annoying to have to click Private Browsing and then OK every time I do it. Clearly, Safari doesn't have a built in feature for permanent private browsing. Can I automate it somehow? How so?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the private browsing only hide your actions from another person who may have physical contact to your computer and your user account? It doesn't actually provide a higher level of security while you're browsing the web. It doesn't affect any data or packets going in/out of your network connection, it just hides your history from prying eyes... This is the information that is not recorded (from Safari Help):
■ Webpages are not added to the history list.
■ The Downloads window is cleared so the name of anything you downloaded won’t appear in the list. (To get rid of the downloaded item itself, you must delete it.)
■ Information isn’t saved for AutoFill, including names and passwords.
■ Searches are not added to the pop-up menu in the Google search field.
■ Cookies are deleted.
But anyone on your network could still "sniff" your packets if that's what you're concerned about.
You might consider searching or posting in the Safari forum since your question isn't really tied to the hardware of your MacBook.
-Doug

Need to disable Private Window/Private Browsing on our work computers, both mac and pc?

I support both macs and pcs with version 26 of firefox on all machines. I need to disable private window and private browsing, including the keyboard shortcuts.

Thank you for the info.
I did run across in my searching another way to disable by creating a txt file (userChrome.ccs) with this code, minus the first sentence: (Open the file on any text editor. Copy and paste the following lines after @namespace
/* Hide Private Browsing in App menu and Tools menu */
#appmenu_privateBrowsing, #privateBrowsingItem {display:none!important;}
/* Hide Sanitize item in App menu and Tools menu */
#appmenu_sanitizeHistory, #sanitizeSeparator, #sanitizeItem {display:none!important;}
I need to try it on my mac before I implement it on other macs and the pcs. The directory placement area was a little vag so I tried it here.
I placed the file in: HD/Users/{me}/Library/Application Support/Firefox/chrome
restarted firefox. Did not work.
Does any one know if the above into is correct and if I placed it in the correct area on the mac?
This is the info I got to place the same file on the pc:
C:\\Users\\[User]\\AppData\\Roaming\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\[random string].default\\chrome\\
Does anyone know if this is correct? I can not test this until after hours on the pc.
Thank you again! I really tried to do the research before I posted the question.

IPad2 just upgraded to iOS7-no History in Safari tab-private browsing is off

The problem: my Safari history does not appear in the tab to the right of the top-of-the-screen Safari Search box. Only Bookmarks and Reading List appear in this tab.
Recent Apple Discussions on this problem indicate the problem is having Private Browsing turned on and turning it off fixes the problem. However, my Private Browsing option is definitely turned off everywhere I've found an option of turning it on (new window, upper left of keyboard)
I have a CDMA iPad2 with iOS 7.0.3 - installed earlier today.
Perhaps the iPad2 doesn't play well with iOS7?
It would be nice to have tab access to recent History.

Thanks, Carolyn! I goofed. I didn't see the row "History" nested in with my bookmarks. I expected it to be on the top of the tab at the level of "Bookmarks" and "Reading List"
Cheers,
Rick

Reset Safari and private browsing

Is the "resent safari" command simply making the browser as if you had started the session with the private browsing? What differences are there between the two?

Hi,
Is the "reset safari" command simply making the browser as if you had started the session with the private browsing?
Yes.
What differences are there between the two?
When you perform a full reset of Safari you lose all your cookies, saved autofill information, history information and usernames/passwords. Bar keeping your bookmarks, it's as if you had never used Safari.
With Private Browsing, you only lose the information since the initiation of the private browsing session. So, your history for example from prior the private browsing session is still available.

Safari 5.0 Browser fails to load

Recently downloaded safari 5 and now every time I open safari i get this--> Failed to Load Fast Browser Search Plugin plugin. * Browser window Controller current webview: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x8ec6bo <--
I deleted the Java installed and all plugins installed on same day but problem still happening. this is on G5 OSX 10.5.8 Need help!
thanks

I have the same problem on one of my two Mac Mini's and cannot solve it. I followed the instructions for removal in Firefox and found no plugins under extensions, under Tools. And I can't even search for anything in Safari as it crashes immediately. I don't see any plugin scripts in my Library either.
Andy, can you help me out?
Robert
Las Vegas

My private browsing is not working how can i enable this again?

I'm using Firefox 4.0.1.
From some days i am not able to enable my Private browsing session.
Please solve it.

build in apps cant be removed or reinstalled they are hardcoded into the os
you should most likely just restart the phone

Safari 4 & Private Browsing fails to work

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