Closed Bug 1049807 Opened 10 years ago Closed 3 years ago

Firefox remembers full screen mode even when using private browsing

Categories

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

24 Branch
x86_64
Linux
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: safinaskar, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Keywords: privacy)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/35.0.1916.153 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Iceweasel 24.7.0 on Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy 7 (of course, Iceweasel is Firefox fork, so everywhere I say "Iceweasel" you can safely assume "Firefox").

Open private window, close all other windows, switch to full screen mode, then close the window (for example, via Alt-F4). Then start Iceweasel again


Actual results:

It will be started in full screen mode


Expected results:

It should not be started in full screen mode. This is clearly the bug. Because any information from private browsing should disappear after exiting from this mode. Including info about whatever full screen mode is enabled. The browser should restore to its old state which was before the private browsing was entered.

Option "When Iceweasel starts" is set to "Show my home page" (and not "Show my windows and tabs from last time") on my machine, but, I think, full screen mode in private mode should not be saved irregardless of this option state.

Consider the following use case: some boy wants to see some porn. He opens the browser, enters private mode, closes all other windows, enters full screen more (because it is so comfort to see the porn in full screen), then watches porn, then closes the window (and he forgets to exit from full screen mode). Then he goes to bathroom and his mom sits at the computer. She opens the browser and notices that the browser for unexpected reasons opened in full screen mode. She thinks: "The browser is in full screen mode. Maybe my son just watched porn (because this is so comfort to watch porn is full screen mode)?"

So, as you can see the private browsing currently doesn't achieve its purposes: it doesn't respect full anonymity of the user, so you should fix the bug.

Also, please note that the main reason why people use private browsing is, of course, watching porn. Porn watchers is your target audience. And videos which suggest some other reasons for using private browsing makes me lough, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu5b_jYWVcQ .

The version I use (Iceweasel 24.7.0) supports both private and normal windows to be opened simultaneously. So, everywhere I said, for example, "entering private browsing mode" I actually meant "opening private window and closing other windows".

Also, this bug appears when the option "Iceweasel will never remember history" is enabled. In this mode there is no private browsing mode, i. e. Iceweasel is in permanent private browsing mode. Iceweasel remembers full screen mode state between runs, and this is a bug, Iceweasel should not do this
Keywords: privacy
This report sent via Chromium. True Iceweasel user agent is:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20140722 Firefox/24.0 Iceweasel/24.7.0
Confirmed with 2014-08-08-03-02-01-mozilla-central-firefox-34.0a1.ru.linux-x86_64 that Private window and normal window use the same window size and full screen mode setting.

I propose that this bug be changed, or a new one filed, for a request to remember size/position/mode for Private Browsing mode separately or not at all.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: Untriaged → Private Browsing
Ever confirmed: true
Summary: Very confusing bug for the porn watchers: Firefox remembers full screen mode even when using private browsing → Firefox remembers full screen mode even when using private browsing
See Also: → 683887
Thanks for confirming :)
Of course, "not at all". I. e. after closing all private browsing windows the browser should completely forget whatever full screen mode was enabled

cleaning up old privacy tickets ... can no longer reproduce .. pinging, let's see who (rolling dice)... Johann it is :)

As per original STR

  • open Firefox (non full screen: close Firefox, open Firefox, it should retain position and size)
  • open Firefox, open new private window
  • close original window, just leave the private window open
  • switch to full screen mode (F11)
  • close the PB mode window (tested both Alt-F4, using the mouse at top to show the urlbar etc)
  • open Firefox

Expected/Actual

  • Firefox starts in non full screen : windows nightly 87
Flags: needinfo?(jhofmann)

Yes, not reproducible on my Debian Stretch

Yeah that seems fine, thanks!

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(jhofmann)
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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