Private Windows on Firefox

[rtestard]

Hi all !

I’m Romain Testard, product manager on Firefox desktop. I’m super interested in opinions and ideas regarding Private Windows. We think that Private Windows are not simple enough to access and would love your feedback regarding what matters to you as a user of private windows.

How can we make private windows simpler to use so you engage with them more?

Some ideas:

• You never run private windows? Tell us why!
• How can we make it simpler to open private Windows?
• What could we do to help users feel like private Windows guarantee a higher level of privacy?
• How can we best support your specific use cases for running private Windows?
• What are the gaps that currently exist on Private Windows to make them better?

Thanks so much for your valuable ideas!

[rtestard]

I suggest you monitor https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1320796 which I think is what you want. I'm following up with the team since this seems to be a clear opportunity to make private browsing better.

[mikewon]

Pfft!  Incorporating private windows suspends extensions, add-ons & special features so we don't use it.  Seems like it's designed for flakes.

[rtestard]

@mikewonClearly private windows are a compromise between usability and privacy guarantees. For instance running extensions inside private windows could be problematic VS user expectations - see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-private-browsing

[davidwatson432]

I think it's a great step of private window I can just advise to stay connected and update users that really helps. 

[vincentj]

As a software engineer, I use private windows regularly to log in under different accounts.  My biggest issue is that all private windows share the same cookie/session data, so I can only log in with 2 accounts at a time (one in my main window, another in a private window.)  It would be awesome if each new private window (not tab) was isolated from the others so I could log in with several different accounts simultaneously.  I understand that this would impact the ability to move tabs between different private windows, but I'm willing to lose that ability if it lets me use more than 2 sessions simultaneously.

[jscher2000]

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@vincentj wrote:

As a software engineer, I use private windows regularly to log in under different accounts.  My biggest issue is that all private windows share the same cookie/session data, so I can only log in with 2 accounts at a time (one in my main window, another in a private window.)

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The most relevant feature available now would be container tabs: each container has its own cookie jar. These are "regular" tabs, meaning that history is written to disk, so in that respect, quite different from private windows.

It is difficult to access Container Tabs without an add-on, although hopefully that will be improved in the future. More info: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/containers 

[rtestard]

Thanks @vincentj - Is your use case around testing or something different? Have you considered the multi account container extension?

[rtestard]

Hi all,Thanks so much for sharing your ideas and opinions around the use of private windows - this is super useful in helping form decisions around the future of this critical area of the browser.
Here are my key take-aways:

• Better privacy protections are always valuable though opt-in is needed when there are strong useability trade-offs
• Being able to more easily transition a URL from private to non private browsing is a valuable feature
• Private tabs VS private windows are an interesting area to research in order to work out what works best for users
• Identity management is a use case for private browsing that is also often fulfilled through the multi-account container extension. Both seem like work-arounds for a product gap around identity management inside Firefox
• Accessibility of private windows could be greatly improved with toolbar buttons or even taskbar shortcuts
• Customizability as always is key since use cases are so diverse

We’re working on medium and longer term priorities for private windows inside Firefox and this will help inform decisions on that path. I look forward to sharing more when I can!

[Jon]

Hey all,

Thanks so much for participating in this productive conversation. It was great seeing so many valuable insights shared both ways! We are closing out this thread, but want to encourage you to continue sharing your feedback and ideas about the use of private windows (and others topics too) in new posts—just be sure to use the necessary labels and tags, so your posts are easily searched for and discovered by our teams.

Also, we are excited to announce that a new discussion hosted by a Firefox Product Manager has just kicked off and can be found here: Let's Chat About the Firefox New Tab Page! 

This will be an ongoing series here in the Mozilla Connect community, so we look forward to continuing to collaborate with you all 😀

-The Community Team

[Jon]

Hey all,

Thanks so much for participating in this productive conversation. It was great seeing so many valuable insights shared both ways! We are closing out this thread, but want to encourage you to continue sharing your feedback and ideas about the use of private windows (and others topics too) in new posts—just be sure to use the necessary labels and tags, so your posts are easily searched for and discovered by our teams.

Also, we are excited to announce that a new discussion hosted by a Firefox Product Manager has just kicked off and can be found here: Let's Chat About the Firefox New Tab Page! 

This will be an ongoing series here in the Mozilla Connect community, so we look forward to continuing to collaborate with you all 😀

-The Community Team

[Jon]

Hey all,

Thanks so much for participating in this productive conversation. It was great seeing so many valuable insights shared both ways! We are closing out this thread, but want to encourage you to continue sharing your feedback and ideas about the use of private windows (and others topics too) in new posts—just be sure to use the necessary labels and tags, so your posts are easily searched for and discovered by our teams.

Also, we are excited to announce that a new discussion hosted by a Firefox Product Manager has just kicked off and can be found here: Let's Chat About the Firefox New Tab Page! 

This will be an ongoing series here in the Mozilla Connect community, so we look forward to continuing to collaborate with you all 😀

-The Community Team