Feature Graphic
Otterbox Defender Case for iPad
Feature Graphic
Apple Magic Trackpad
Feature Graphic
PixelSkin HD iPhone 4 Case from Speck
Feature Graphic
Fitted iPhone 4 Case from Speck Products
Feature Graphic
STM Scout Laptop Shoulder Bag for MacBooks

Home | About | Advertising | Search



Safari private browsing not private
May 14th 2008

Related Articles
- Ambrosia runs software bundles for 70% savings
- Screen casting application ScreenFlow 2.0 now available
- Camtasia released for Mac
- ScreenFlow 2 announced, to add YouTube publishing
- Retrospect 8.1 restores PPC support, improves performance
- Apple releases Logic Pro 9 with Main Mainstage 2 and Soundtrack Pro 3
- Quicken for Mac road map gets extended to 2010
- Apple posts Safari 4.0.2 security fix
- Safari 4 tops 11 million downloads in three days
- Snowtape listens, records, edits, and exports Internet radio programming

Married men everywhere celebrated when Apple added "private browsing" to Safari. And, it does pretty much what it says—prevent the application from storing information, including history, downloads, Forms AutoFill information and searches.

Apple's documentation on the feature states: "You can make sure you don’t leave your private information behind, without deleting other users’ personal settings. Then when you turn off the private browsing feature, Safari resumes remembering your browsing history and other information."

A first-line, plausible deniability tool for the masses—cool!

However, as MacFixIt reader Christian Buerli reports, private browsing does not stop plug-ins from storing historical information.

Apple Store


For instance, even with private browsing on, the domain names of visited, Flash-enabled sites will be recorded to ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects/.

The only way to prevent data from being stored by plugins is to turn them off—Safari > Preferences > Security and deselecting "Enable plug-ins."

Editor's note: If you're worried about a family member, etc discovering your predilection for cross-dressing poodle fanciers (whatever), Safari's private browsing is probably more than safe enough. If you're worried about criminal and / or government surveillance (ie NSA), then a properly folded and blessed tinfoil hat is perhaps your best defense...

What's your take?

Get 25 FREE iPod compatible downloads from eMusic!
Choose from over 2.8 Million songs!

Connect with Insanely Great Mac

RSS  iTunes  Twitter   YouTube  Facebook


IGM Specials

iMac Upgrades 1333 MHz
4GB - $108
8GB - $248
16GB - $488

Mercury Extreme SSD
60GB - $180
120GB - $320
240GB - $630

Seagate 2TB $149
Hitachi 320GB $54
Samsung 2.5" 500GB $79

Mac Pro Memory
4GB - $153
8GB - $285
16GB- $560

NewerTech iPhone/iPod Car Charger - $9.79

MacBook Pro
DDR3/1066MHz - $198











Home

About

Advertising

Search

Copyright 1995-2010 Insanely Great Mac. All rights reserved.
Privacy Statment | Terms of Service
| Editorial Policy