Hacker News Reader

Comment by probably_wrong | Hacker News Reader

I have two use cases requiring private browsing, and dealing with both of them is very annoying.

On one hand, I don't want to be tracked. Disabling cookies in this case is fine, because if I open my webmail then all I do afterwards is tracked, courtesy of analytics code. On the other hand, disallowing cookies leads to all the problems mentioned in the post.

I wish there was a feature "keep multiple tabs, but cookies are not shared between them". Currently I manage with a combination of Firefox extensions and using two browsers at the time. But I wish it was easier.

View on HN

What Firefox extensions are you using? Check out Multi Account Containers on Firefox if you haven't already. It fulfills all my privacy requirements when paired with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

I tried this the other day because Google Stackdriver claims to need third-party cookies enabled, which is an absolute no-go, but it also refuses to work in incognito mode and even the container mode didn't help, IIRC.

> "keep multiple tabs, but cookies are not shared between them"

That's how Safari does it. It can be a little awkward, in that [eg] if you log into HN, then open a comments page in a new tab, you'll need to log in again -- but I think it's better than Chrome's approach.

There's a middle ground that seems like it'd be the best of both worlds — sharing things between multiple private tabs, but not multiple private windows.

Except when one uses server push and that's not true anymore.

Aren't you just describing Firefox container tabs?

There's a third use case. A use case that most people use it for...

Developing web apps and avoiding caching problems, obviously.

I have never been concerned with tracking and no one has scammed me, broken into any account, knocked on my door, or tried to kill me yet.

But in two decades, after your data has been sold and bought countless times, to who knowns which government? In 30 years, when I'm nearing retirement, I have no idea which political system I will live in, what power companies will have over my daily life, or who has bought all the data mined about me.

Best case I will not get any insurance because I googled some weird disease symptoms in 2018, for worst case scenarios just look 30 years back in Eastern Europe.

And then what does said government do with that data? They can buy and sell my information all they want. I don't care. Nothing has happened to me. Nothing will happen to me. I only wish I started a business to cater to people who live with such great fear as so many companies have been doing for the past 10 years or so.

The boogie man went away when I turned five years old.

Found the guy with a shitty rent-seeking website that hates adblockers.

> I have never been concerned with tracking and no one has scammed me, broken into any account, knocked on my door, or tried to kill me yet.

Is this a challenge?

Would you leave your car and house unlocked if you never had a burglar?

Your analogy is poor. I didn't say I left my computer wide open for bad guys to look at. I said I don't care if they publish my address in the phone book.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com