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What does private browsing tell sites?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

Tee Ess
Tee Ess
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What is available to the visited site in Private Browsing in a new window? Private browsing does not save cookies or history, but does it make previously saved cookies and history from un-private browsing available?

I ask because there is advice in a couple of YouTube videos about how to search for keywords to use in your new videos. This advice is that when hunting for potential popular search keywords, using a new private window to do the search will cause YouTube to do an "unbiased" search. That is, it will not be able to look at your YouTube history to determine viewing preferences when it presents you with recommended (auto complete) searches.

(Oops. I just realized I am doing this in a private window. I hope that doesn't matter.)

Thanks, Tom

What is available to the visited site in Private Browsing in a new window? Private browsing does not save cookies or history, but does it make previously saved cookies and history from un-private browsing available? I ask because there is advice in a couple of YouTube videos about how to search for keywords to use in your new videos. This advice is that when hunting for potential popular search keywords, using a new private window to do the search will cause YouTube to do an "unbiased" search. That is, it will not be able to look at your YouTube history to determine viewing preferences when it presents you with recommended (auto complete) searches. (Oops. I just realized I am doing this in a private window. I hope that doesn't matter.) Thanks, Tom

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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PB mode only means that all session data is kept in memory and purged when you close al PB mode windows. This data storage is shared among all PB mode windows, so it isn't true that each window has its own storage. Most features should work the same in regular and in private browsing mode, but features that require storing data in the profile folder may not work properly. Normally you only notice that cookies from a regular session aren't available and the need to re-login and possibly accept allowing the website to use cookies.

See also:

cor-el
cor-el
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Note that some features like with Enhanced Tracking Protection and extensions can be enabled only in PB mode and in that case performance might be different.