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Comment by throwaway_391 | Hacker News Reader

I don't fully understand why everyone gets upset over browser leaks when in private mode - most websites interested in tracking private sessions will just associate private and non-private sessions by IP address.

If you're paranoid enough to use a VPN for 'private' traffic, you should probably be running such sessions in a VM using something like the tails live CD.

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For sure.

But using Tails in VMs isn't recommended. Better is using Whonix, because it isolates the Tor client and userland in separate VMs. It also has a LiveCD mode. And for added security, you can run it in Qubes.

Funny that you namedrop like three security products but fail to evaluate which hypervisor should be used, which is probably the most important part of a secure environment if unauthorized code execution fits in your threat model.

Sorry. Whonix, by default for non-expert users, runs in VirtualBox. You can also use KVM. And Qubes basically uses Xen.

My threat model is mainly about preventing potential adversaries from learning my ISP-assigned IP address. I don't care all that much if a VM, or even a host machine, gets pwned. My stuff is well enough compartmentalized that I'd at most lose some work. But not my privacy.

Indeed. Private sessions do not make you untrackable, the only difference is nothing is saved from the session. But many people misunderstand what private/incognito mode does.

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