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Comment by emacdona | Hacker News Reader

For anyone curious as to how I solve the problem right now, I just have two separate Firefox profiles. One has a ton of plugins; I use it to browse the web. The other has no plugins; I use it to visit my bank's website.

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How is no plugins different than private browsing, assuming you don't allow plugins in private browsing. Is private browsing too strict?

That's a good question. I don't know -- I never considered private browsing. If I close a private browsing session, are all traces (ie: cookies, history, etc.) of it erased? If so, I don't think that's what I want. I'm okay with my bank (and websites I trust) setting cookies, for example.

Yeah, private browsing / private session / incognito mode will stop you from storing cookies and session data.

Sure, but my bank and (like most other highly trusted sites) doesn’t set any useful cookies anyway. I think there is an option to autofill my username, but why bother if my password manager does that anyway?

If I open something in private browsing, that’s a time where I especially want every bit of BS blocked.

I do the same, but because I think it’s important to see what the average use will when using the web. Especially if you’re working professionally with the web in anyway.

> The other has no plugins; I use it to visit my bank's website.

I use a separate portable FF[0] for that. That makes "cross contamination" impossible.

[0] https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

I sometimes use a shortcut/profile like this:

  cp -a /my/firefox/profile/template "$TMPDIR"
  firefox --no-remote --profile "$TMPDIR"

Gives you a fresh profile every launch.

What’s the concern about visiting your bank’s website using your standard Firefox profile?

Browser plugins generally have privileged access to data exchanges between user and remote server. So, they could potentially spy on you and scrape your secrets.

Firefox and Chrome here. Just easier overall.

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