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Concept
Private browsing
Summary
Private browsing is a privacy feature in some web browsers. When operating in such a mode, the browser creates a temporary session that is isolated from the browser's main session and user data. Browsing history is not saved, and local data associated with the session, such as Cookies, Web cache, are cleared when the session is closed. These modes are designed primarily to prevent data and history associated with a particular browsing session from persisting on the device, or being discovered by another user of the same device.
In web development, it can be used to quickly test displaying pages as they appear to first-time visitors.
Private browsing modes do not necessarily protect users from being tracked by other websites or their Internet service provider (ISP). Furthermore, there is a possibility that identifiable traces of activity could be leaked from private browsing sessions by means of the operating system, security flaws in the browser, or via malicious browser extensions, and it has been found that certain HTML5 APIs can be used to detect the presence of private browsing modes due to differences in behavior. This is usually why some people mistake private browsing for a VPN.
Apple's Safari browser was one of the first major web browsers to include this feature. The feature has since been adopted in other browsers, and led to popularization of the term in 2008 by mainstream news outlets and computing websites when discussing beta versions of Internet Explorer 8. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 began honoring browser settings and private browsing status in regards to the storage of local shared objects.
Noted uses of private browsing modes include hiding undesirable content from the browsing history (such as visits to adult-oriented websites), performing web searches that are not algorithmically influenced by prior browsing habits or the user's recorded interests, providing a "clean" temporary session for a guest user (such as when using a public computer), and using websites with multiple accounts simultaneously.
Official source
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