Firefox does not include the privacy web browsing button

[Menydh]

Firefox 3 does not include the privacy web browsing button

June 18, 2008

One of the security functionalities promised by Mozilla which allow the user to browse without leaving a trace, was not included in the release of Firefox 3, yesterday on 17 June.

Mozilla decided in the last moment to remove the button for "private browsing" from its latest version of Firefox. With this button, the user could disable all cookies and activity registries in internet during its browsing sesions, without leaving traces and as if it had never occurred.

Johnathan Nightingale, of Mozilla, said that they "had looked for ways to do this, but the problem is that it touches a lot of code". He added that "because there are such rich interactions with Web sites and mashups and things like that, we didn't want to put in something that was half baked."

Many users suspect that Mozilla gave up to pressures from Google and other internet giants, as it would ruin its analytics and publicity services.

[Amorsite]

It does bring some speed improvements though, and it looks better.

[Kernunnos]

privacy is another thing. This regards just the privacy of one's computer or account on a single machine, with respect to other's users of the machine.

Actually, what one does on the net, i.e. what sites he visits, what he downloads, what he does upload is not anonymized by the browser at all: most ISPs in any country will keep track of their users' online activity due to national anti terror laws, and most government are actively monitoring internet traffic at a router's level, thanks to powerful filtering software.

In short, this is not big news. we are all watched and our force lies in teh act that our "democracies" cannot go on too far in repressing nationalistic activity without negating their very essence in the eyes of a broader public .