Amazon is able to track the last viewed items even in private browsing mode.
Start firefox in private browsing mode. Make sure Tracking Protection is ON. Visit amazon website and do not login to the account. Browse through certain items, say a particular book or camera or mobile which you never have browsed earlier. Close the browser. Now start in normal mode. Visit amazon website and do not login to the account. You get the same products in the last viewed section which you browsed in private browsing mode.
I always thought Private browsing mode is always "private", but it doesn't seem to be like that.
Can anyone please suggest, whats wrong.
All Replies (3)
Hi there, does sound like tracking might be working regardless. I will clear my amazon cookies and have a look.
I cannot reproduce this. I tried twice, first looking for tissues and then looking for Sandisk MP3 players on www.amazon.com. I looked at digital cameras in Normal Mode between the tries.
Amazon only remembers and shows me the items I last viewed in Normal Mode. Even getting the tracking cookie in Normal Mode and not clearing it didn't make Private Mode track to Normal Mode or vice versa (as the two don't share cookie jars).
It's not IP tracking either since I visited the site from the same IP on all tries.
Does the issue repeat if you update to 44.0 (your details show you as 43.0)?
Tracking Protection only prevent Firefox from loading data from specific server that are on a specific list (i.e. content from third-party websites). I won't protect you against how the main website sees you. Data about your visits is likely stored in cookies stored on your computer.
Firefox uses two independent cookie jars, one for normal mode and one for Private Browsing mode that is shared among all PB mode tabs and windows. During a PB mode session or in a PB mode window cookies are kept in memory in a separate cookie jar just like other session data is kept in memory. Cookies saved in normal mode can't be accessed as they are stored in a different cookie jar. The PB mode cookie jar is cleared when all PB mode windows and tabs are closed. Note that this requires to close Firefox if you are in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; never remember history).
If data from Private Browsing mode is still present when you start Firefox in normal mode then something is wrong in your current set up.
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.