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Why is Private Browsing better than just clearing History daily?

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  • 8 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I heard that you should do your online banking and other financial activities in Private Browsing mode. I always clear history when I turn off the computer anyway. And getting the Private Browsing to accept my previously bookmarked locations has been unsuccessful. I can re-bookmark from Private Browsing, of course. But I just wondered if this is really necessary, or more for folks with computers on networks, or shared computers?

You may not get at my computer--troubleshooting information. I'm using Windows 7 operating system and the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.

I heard that you should do your online banking and other financial activities in Private Browsing mode. I always clear history when I turn off the computer anyway. And getting the Private Browsing to accept my previously bookmarked locations has been unsuccessful. I can re-bookmark from Private Browsing, of course. But I just wondered if this is really necessary, or more for folks with computers on networks, or shared computers? You may not get at my computer--troubleshooting information. I'm using Windows 7 operating system and the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.

Chosen solution

Note that in Private Browsing mode the disk cache isn't used

Firefox also disables the disk cache if you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the browsing cache.
So if you really want to clear all personal data daily the there is not much difference.
Private Browsing mode only doesn't save data to disk, but keeps it in memory during the current session.

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You aren't on the latest version of Firefox, please update to Firefox 22 Update Firefox to the latest release (you are on Firefox 21).

There is no real difference between using Private Browsing and clearing your history everyday, it's just personal preference around workflows.

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Chosen Solution

Note that in Private Browsing mode the disk cache isn't used

Firefox also disables the disk cache if you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the browsing cache.
So if you really want to clear all personal data daily the there is not much difference.
Private Browsing mode only doesn't save data to disk, but keeps it in memory during the current session.