Private Browsing by PortableApps.com 1.0 has been released. Private Browsing by PortableApps.com is an enhanced privacy mode app that utilizes your existing copy of Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. It has specialized settings, a flash blocker, a privacy-enhancing blocklist, a separate profile and a custom theme so you can easily distinguish it from your main Firefox Portable profile. It even has its own separate set of bookmarks. It's basically a more-advanced private browsing feature than those included in major browsers that can even be customized further by advanced users. It's packaged in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Suite. And it's open source and completely free.
PortableApps.com Platform 2.0 Beta 5 users who already have this app installed, simply click 'Check for Updates' in your PA.c Menu to update to the new version.
Features
Private Browsing by PortableApps.com is an app that works with Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. It allows you to launch Firefox with a specialized profile with advanced privacy measures included. This profile has persistent cookies, history, download history and other privacy features off. Flashblock is included to block Flash Cookies and other nasties. AdBlock Plus is included with a subscription to the EasyPrivacy list to block tracking scripts and sites. A custom theme and branding is included so you can easily distinguish your private profile from your normal one.
PRIVACY NOTE: As with any network software, your network traffic is still viewable by network admins. This just lets you avoid having local tracks on the PC or on your portable device and helps you avoid some internet and advertising tracking.
PortableApps.com Installer / PortableApps.com Format
Private Browsing by PortableApps.com is packaged in a PortableApps.com Installer so it will automatically detect an existing PortableApps.com installation when your drive is plugged in. It supports upgrades by installing right over an existing copy, preserving all settings. And it's in PortableApps.com Format, so it automatically works with the PortableApps.com Suite including the Menu and Backup Utility.
Download
Private Browsing by PortableApps.com is available for immediate download from the Private Browsing by PortableApps.com homepage. Get it today!
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Comments
trying to figure out what is this app exactly
this app is an ''in-house'' job (even the ''source app''--vs PA.c PAFing some1 else existing app) ?
is this (app) more than me simply installing Flashblock and ABP myself?
this app only enables Private Browsing only for 1 browser: Firefox? or will it work with other portable browsers also?
is this DL basically a specialized version of Firefox but with this ''Private Browsing'' (I noticed 2MB download / 3MB installed which is less than Firefox) ?
(just trying to figure out what is this app exactly--that's all)
PS what's the link for the DEV Test of this app? this is the app's inaugural, official release?
In House
This is an in-house app, it was in dev test for over a year in the forums (before FF even had private browsing). It's basically the equivalent of if you installed and configured APB with EasyPrivacy, FlashBlock, disabled perm cookies, disabled history, etc and added a custom theme and saved it as a custom profile that you then swapped out with your main Firefox Portable profile so it had its own everything including bookmarks. It uses your existing Firefox Portable install (to save space and cut down on updates) rather than using a separate Firefox install but operates independently in terms of all your personal data. It even uses a custom icon and window title while running so you always know you're in enhanced private mode. It's basically all the work you'd have to do to custom configure it using the 2ndProfile launcher plus a few added bits like a custom icon so you always know what you're doing with it.
It doesn't work with Opera or Chrome, of course.
OK so I see its advantages/still got it uses
(haven't install yet) so I imagine if I want PB, then I will click some entry ''PB'' in the PAM/P(latform)...and if I want just a regular non-PB session then just launch the entry Firefox??? Can I have both a PB session and a non-PB session running at the same time?
Yes and No
Yes, you have a separate icon for each. But they can't run at the same time (it's a Firefox thing and it'll prevent full portability).
so that eliminates me from logging into my 2 diff Yahoo emails?
just had to confirm
EDIT: sorry, but these Q's just keep on popping in my noggin:
so if my portable Fx already have ABP, should i uninstall ? disable it? or can i still keep it (for when I am not doing a PB session) ?
Nope
This is an addition. SO you can have your regular FF just like you like it. AND have your secured FF configured as securely as you want. Both independent. You decide which one needs what.
so what if I have diff channels of Firefox Portable?
for ex, on 1 USB flash drive, I have 3 installed: 3.6.13, 4.0b8, and Minefield 4.0b9pre ... so this new PB app will always work with the STABLE version? in this case 3.6.13 ?
BTW, said 4.0b8 gives me this message whenever i launch it http://img202.imageshack.us/f/firfoxportabletest40b8m.jpg/ ...does this mean that it's corrupted? HOW DO I FIX it withOUT losing my extensions, bookmarks, whatnots for that version??? Everytime I'd clicked NO as the option, did I do the right thing?
RIGHT AFTER clicking NO, I get following message ''Fx Portable can not run directly from a read-only location and will now close'' and I can't never use this Fx channel on said drive. The other Fx and GCP channels are OK and that's never setting anything on the flash drive
So I can't log in to 2 Yahoo email accounts?
Stable
It uses FirefoxPortable (that directory) so it uses stable. It hasn't been updated for 4.0 yet.
Yes, that does look like file corruption on your stick. Please post in the forums (not comments in a news story) for assistance.
No, you can't use both at the same time unless you use MultipleInstances, just like standard Firefox Portable, which is not fully portable. Nothing changes here. It's just a new way to have a separate pre-configured profile.
Yes you can
You "can" run 2 firefox profiles at the same time. It doesn't compromise portability, at least not with the 2nd profile available here.
It's just put "AdditionalParameters=-no-remote" in the ini file.
It Does
It does compromise it by our definition in that it will leave behind a couple of empty folders, possibly an extension folder and any crash reports (which may contain personal info) if it crashes. This is because the launcher doesn't stick around to clean up.
Does Private Browsing block
Looks good.
sorry for being an idiot...
sorry for being an idiot...
i dont get what it says here:
PRIVACY NOTE: As with any network software, your network traffic is still viewable by network admins. This just lets you avoid having local tracks on the PC or on your portable device and helps you avoid some internet and advertising tracking.
does it mean that the network administrators CAN see the pages i go to?
or does it mean that they CANT see it?
They Can
With every browser, they can see the pages you go to. Unless you send it over a private network layer like Tor -- which will be blocked at most places you want to hide things from network admins (work and school) -- or forward it via Putty, which is likely similarly blocked.
ok ive tried Tor and Putty
ok ive tried Tor and Putty and both are blocked so i guess im Private Enough with Private Browsing By PortableApps
"It even has it's own separate set of bookmarks"
Just a minor point, but the description should read:
"It even has its own separate set of bookmarks"
(no apostrophe in its)
Nick
Fixed
Fixed. I shouldn't add sentences at 1:45am.
Hi How come it's not in .xpi
Hi
How come it's not in .xpi format?
To the AP, "its' is the correct punctuation"
thanks pa.com
.
It's not .xpi cause it's not a extension. Private Browsing is a program separated from Firefox Portable (but still using FFP executables).
Still, I'd like to be able to
Still, I'd like to be able to use this with my regular firefox at home, even if it's just for the private browsing skin (I've had a couple of times where I forgot I was in private browsing mode, closed firefox and wondered where my session had gone next time I opened it). If there's any scope for making this workable on a local install I'd be eager to know!
Possibly
I was going to wait to see if there was interest in the portable version and then consider a local release.
I say "yes" to a local release for Private Browsing
I would like for you guys to consider a local release of Private Browsing so that it can be used on standard installs of Firefox besides just Firefox Portable. Granted, making local release software is not your focus, but I think this would be a very rare exception.
Separate App
As mentioned, it's a separate app. As I think 'add-on' was confusing, I've reworded the description. This is kinda new territory, so I figured there would be some confusion.
when FF not in default?
can I change something when the FF not in the default position, but folder names are different (as having more then one FF)
Nope
You must have it as FirefoxPortable sitting right next to it in a parent directory. The updater won't work with people moving stuff around either.
Additions
I suggest the addition of "HTTPS Everywhere" - https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere - to this profile. It is a privacy/security extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in collaboration with the Tor Project.
It forces HTTPS by default on a lot of popular web sites that support it. It won't prevent network admins from seeing the accessed URLs, but it will prevent them from seeing what data is passed to those sites.
It will also prevent man-in-the-middle session hijacking attacks over public wireless networks.
My second suggestion would be replacing FlashBlock with NoScript, which provides the same functionality and a lot more. I can understand, however, why it would be left out. Not all users know/understand how to use it.
No NoScript
NoScript won't be included. More and more websites are assuming Javascript will be on and, honestly, it's a safe assumption. This isn't like 10 years ago when corporate firewalls would filter out JavaScript to make things safer and websites had to accommodate that. Everyone has JavaScript enabled except an exceedingly small percentage of users who worry about it. That percentage is small enough that, while many of the very large sites and the geek-centric sites will take it into account, most regular websites will not any more. So, the end user has to realize when a site isn't working because of JavaScript and enable it for that site or page. That's much too complicated for standard users. While I understand why you use it, you've made the decision that you're willing to put up with thinking about it every time you visit a new website. Regular users are not.
HTTPS Everywhere on the other hand may be a solid add-on to consider. Transparency to the user is key. And any interaction with the user should be intuitive. That's how Flashblock made the cut.
Or Not
It looks like I spoke too soon on HTTPS Everywhere. It messes up some sites. Even Google doesn't work right when HTTPS is enabled (you lose the Google bar at the top to switch to shopping, images, etc).
Yes
I used it but dropped it on some pages. I dont need to use https every time I visit Wikipedia for example.
Search Engine Security
Well, that's not because of HTTPS Everywhere, but because Google did it like that. Those services like Shopping etc. don't support HTTPS yet. If you access https://www.google.com manually you get the same effect. It's just meant for search for now.
Obviously, HTTPS Everywehere is not a magical extension that can force HTTPS on a website that doesn't support it. So, its functionally is limited to how well the target website implemented HTTPS. For example, on Facebook over HTTPS, the chat feature doesn't work. That's a problem for Facebook to solve.
On the other hand, I have another proposal. An extension called Search Engine Security (SES) which protects users from malicious black hat search engine optimization (BHSEO) attacks that take them to scareware pages.
It does this by altering the referer header, because most, if not all, BHSEO sites check to see if the referer is a search engine before taking victims to the attack page.
More about it here: http://research.zscaler.com/2010/07/new-firefox-add-on-to-protect-agains...
Addition
Another possible additon might me Ghostery. It might be too "geeky" though...
Geeky
Too geeky. And EasyPrivacy will already be blocking many of these.
Does Private Browsing block
Does Private Browsing block those new "super cookies", the non deletable LSO's?
Flash-cookies (Local Shared Objects, LSO) are pieces of information placed on your computer by a Flash plugin. Those Super-Cookies are placed in central system folders and so protected from deletion. They are frequently used like standard browser cookies. Although their thread potential is much higher as of conventional cookies, only few users began to take notice of them. It is of frequent occurrence that -after a time- hundreds of those Flash-cookies reside in special folders. And they won't be deleted - never and are used by companies to trace our internet activities. CCleaner etc do not delete them, nor does the web browser.
Bugs: Home Pages
Hello, just noticed what I would consider a couple of small bugs in "Private Browsing by PortableApps.com" (what a long name [jk])
Bug 1:[Extension uses wrong homepage]
To reproduce:
Expected Result:
Open a new tab at the Private Browsing by PortableApps.com homepage
What Happens Instead:
Opens a new tab at the PortableApps.com Home Page
Note: This is an easy fix, just change the URL in the <em:homepageURL> tag in Data\Profile\{bf23285b-1e78-4d44-8493-bd495c5e78f3}\install.rdf (also in App\DefaultData\...)
Bug 2:[Site missing redirect]
To reproduce:
Expected Result:
Open a new tab at the Private Browsing by PortableApps.com homepage
What Happens Instead:
Opens a new tab at PortableApps.com/PrivateBrowsing which is a 404 error (page not found)
Note: This is really just a lack of redirect, and considering that PortableApps.com/PrivateBrowsing is what "Private Browsing by PortableApps.com" shows in its splash screen and what the appinfo.ini has set for Homepage.