Private browsing in Mozilla Firefox. Incognito mode in Firefox - safe browsing and anonymous web surfing
In today's article we will look at temporary and permanent private browsing modes.
What is private browsing mode? By activating this function in your browser, you exclude the storage of any information (addresses of pages visited, any completed data, passwords, cookies, cache and download list). Those. in private mode you have a completely clean history.
However, in private mode there are several nuances:
1. Downloaded files should be saved a little deeper. Despite the fact that the files will not be visible in the list of downloads, the standard download folder can immediately tell you about your active virtual life.
2. When creating bookmarks in incognito mode, it is worth remembering that after disabling private mode, all added bookmarks will be saved.
3. The settings you make in Firefox will work exclusively under your account. When logging into another account on your computer, it is worth remembering that the browser will work as usual.
Incognito mode can be enabled in two variations:
1. Temporary private mode – allows you to instantly enable or disable incognito mode. If you are visiting, this function will allow you not to leave traces of your presence on the Internet.
2. Permanent private mode - this mode is useful if you need to maintain anonymity on an ongoing basis.
Activate temporary private browsing mode.
You can launch this mode in two ways: through the Firefox toolbar and using a hotkey combination. In the first case, you need to open the Firefox menu and select “Private Window”. After clicking this button, a new browser window will open, in which an icon with a mask will indicate that it is working in private mode. In the second case, you only need to press the combination Ctrl+Shift+P, after which the private window will immediately open.
Activate permanent private browsing mode.
Open the Firefox menu and select Settings. 
"Privacy". In the "History" section, select "will use your history storage settings." 
New items will appear where you need to check the box “Always work in private browsing mode.” After restarting Firefox, the browser will work exclusively in private mode. 
Private mode in Mozilla Firefox is one of the most useful browser features that can significantly increase your security while surfing the web, so don't neglect it.
To hide your activity from your employer or provider, you will need more serious solutions, for example: anonymizers, special software, proxy plugins, etc. Incognito mode in Firefox can offer:
- Don't save history.
- Turn off cookies.
- Hide activity in search engines.
- Delete temporary files.
In this case, all downloads and bookmarks will be saved. display user activity on a particular site. Browsing history saves all sites that have been opened in the browser over the past six months and often becomes an incriminating factor in some kind of “crime”. In general, incognito is a very useful feature for those who have small secrets, but it is far from omnipotent. This certainly will not help international terrorists and intelligence agents.
How to enable incognito mode in Firefox
The first step is to open the menu, which is hidden under the icon in the form of three horizontal sticks in the upper right corner. Here we press the button with the image of a Venetian mask - “ Open private window».
The second method is somewhat simpler. All you have to do is right-click on any link. In the context menu, select “Open link in a new private window.”
How to check the functionality: try in incognito mode to open a site that requires user authorization, for example: email, social network profile, forum account, etc. The page will launch on the start window, where you need to enter your login and password, which says that working with cookies is disabled, privacy mode is working.
Why might my employer or provider track me?
It's simple - to hide online from such surveillance, you need to mask your IP. Chameleon, Tor and VPN are some of the many services that allow you to completely hide your activity, and if you try hard, you can bypass the traffic! What’s remarkable is that most anonymizers are absolutely free. In some cases, you will need to install the software on your PC, for others it is enough to open a similar online service in Mozilla, enter the desired address and use it without fear of surveillance.
If you need to maintain privacy while browsing the web so that the sites you visit are not reflected in your browser history, then this article is definitely for you. Below the cut, I will teach you how to enable temporary and permanent private browsing modes in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Of course, it is very tempting that after visiting sites, this will not be reflected in the history in any way. However, incognito mode has its own number of nuances:
1. The downloaded files will be saved, but somewhat deeper. If you simply open the list of downloads in the browser, then only a gaping void will be visible there, but if you go to the standard “Downloads” folder, it will immediately become clear about your active virtual life.
2. If you have created many tabs in incognito mode, then remember that after disabling this mode, all open tabs will be immediately added to the browsing history.
3. Activated incognito mode will work exclusively under your account. If you log into Mozilla Firefox as a different user, you will need to enable private browsing again (if necessary).
Activating private browsing mode in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
The browser has 2 incognito modes:
1. Temporary mode. In this mode, you can quickly activate and deactivate incognito mode. This mode is very convenient to use when visiting, when you need to go to a couple of sites without leaving traces of your visits.
2. Permanent private mode. This mode is intended to be used on an ongoing basis.
Enable temporary private browsing mode.
There are 2 simple ways to enable this mode: through the browser toolbar or by entering hot keys on the keyboard.
To activate incognito via the toolbar, open the browser menu in Firefox and select “Private Window”. After clicking this item, a new window will open in the browser, and a small icon with a mask will appear in the upper right part of the browser, which will notify that this window is working in private mode.
You can also press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P
, and exactly the same private window will open in front of you. 
Activate permanent private browsing mode.
Open the Firefox browser menu and select Settings. 
A window will open in which immediately go to the “Privacy” tab, and in the “History” section change the option to “Will use your history storage settings.” 
Once you select this option, new items will appear in the same window. Select "Always work in private browsing mode" and click OK.
To complete, the browser must be restarted. After the restart, the changes made will take effect and all windows will work in incognito mode.
Every user who works on the Internet, one way or another, leaves traces of his presence on the network. All web pages visited by him are recorded in history and in the cache, in addition, downloads made are stored in a special folder.
However, there are times when you want to surf the web in “invisible” mode, so that no one knows or sees what sites the user goes to and what he did on the Internet. Fortunately, this is not a problem, and if we talk about the Mozilla browser, then you can activate incognito mode in Firefox. By the way, there is also. I propose to talk in a little more detail about what it is and what opportunities it gives.
Features of incognito mode
Like any other, incognito mode has a number of important features that should be taken into account when activating it. I would like to draw your attention to the following:
- Incognito mode must be activated separately for each account. If, say, you log into Mozilla under a different name, you need to re-enable firefox private mode;
- The downloaded files are still stored in the browser, they are easy to find, you just have to “dig” deeper. More precisely, nothing will be displayed in the list of downloads, but if you visit the “Downloads” folder, everything will be visible there;
- Another point: if you create a lot of tabs in incognito mode, then after deactivating it, the open tabs will be visible in the history. And so that no one knows what sites you visited, you will need.
How to enable private mode
There are two options for activating incognito mode: temporary and permanent. In the first case, you can use the key combination Ctrl+Shift+P; you just need to hold down these buttons at the same time. After this, a warning window will appear in which you must select the “Start private browsing” button. A new tab will open in your browser and indicate that Firefox will not remember the history for this session. To exit private mode, press the same key combination again.
To activate always-on private mode, follow these steps:
To summarize, I would like to note that it is possible to work in stealth mode, but you should take into account some nuances. Activating it is quite simple, just like deactivating it.
Video to help
Stands out Incognito mode , which will be very useful for users who care about personal privacy. Below we will look at what exactly this mode does, how to activate it and what nuances there are.
Each user, visiting sites on the Internet through, leaves behind traces. Having visited any site, information about it is recorded in the browser in the form of history, cache, and downloads. Usually this information is very useful, for example, when you want to use the history to find a site that you visited before, but if you do not want it to be imprinted in the browser, then Incognito mode is provided for this.
Incognito mode will primarily be useful to those users who have to share one account and browser. This mode will allow other users not to know what sites you visit.
Incognito mode has several features that must be taken into account if you decide to use this feature:
1. Downloaded files will also be saved to the installed folder (by default it is “Downloads”), however, they will not appear in the list of downloads in the browser itself;
2. If you have opened several tabs in incognito mode, then you must remember that by disabling this mode, the open tabs will be immediately recorded in the visit log;
3. If you activate permanent Incognito mode, it will only operate in the browser under your account. If you log into Firefox as a different user, Incognito mode will not work there.
There are two options for Incognito mode:
1. Temporary mode. A quick and convenient way to activate Incognito mode. It will be useful if you need to periodically open private windows.
2. Constant mode. Enable full incognito mode, which will work constantly.
Activating temporary Incognito mode
To activate temporary mode, open the Firefox menu and select the section "Private window" .
Next, the browser will immediately open a new window, which will work in private mode. This will be indicated by an icon with a mask in the upper right corner.
You can also open a private window using a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P .
Activating permanent Incognito mode
If you need to use Incognito mode on an ongoing basis, this function can be activated in the following way:
The browser must be restarted for the changes to take effect. After this, all tabs created in Mozilla Firefox will automatically open in Incognito mode.
