Mozilla: 4 tools to Protect Your Online Privacy

We are always more concerned with the privacy while browsing on any internet browser. We sometimes want to not to let any body know even a single bit of information. And keep an eye — or both, just to be extra safe.

Here you gonna know about many privacy setting for your Firefox Mozilla Browser that you may or may not know before. Sometime we know about this setting but can't use it as we don't know how actually it work. All such issue we will discuss further.

For now, keep reading to learn about the privacy features packed into Firefox for desktop.

4 Features for Desktop Privacy

Mozilla Firefox provide some tools to help you keep your information your own.

Do Not Track

Many sites track what you do online and then sell that data to advertisers; Firefox lets you tell them you want to opt out. This doesn't yet make you invisible to all advertisers, however honoring this setting is voluntary — individual websites are not required to respect it. Websites that do honor this setting should automatically stop tracking your behavior without any further action from you.

Enable Do Not Track on your desktop. The Do-not-track feature is turned off by default. To turn it on:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options.


2. Select the Privacy panel.


3. Check Tell websites I do not want to be tracked.


4. Click OK to close the Options window.

Private Browsing

This feature does exactly what it says. Turn it on to keep your browsing history private from others who use the same computer. Sometimes it's nice to go undercover.

Now question comes in our mind what does private browsing not save?

• Visited pages: No pages will be added to the list of sites in the History menu, the Library window's history list, or the Awesome Bar address list.


• Form and Search Bar entries: Nothing you enter into text boxes on web pages or the Search bar will be saved for Form autocomplete.


• Passwords: No new passwords will be saved.


• Download List entries: No files you download will be listed in the Downloads window after you turn off Private Browsing.


• Cookies: Cookies store information about websites you visit such as site preferences, login status, and data used by plugins like Adobe Flash. Cookies can also be used by third parties to track you across web sites.

Note: To prevent Flash from storing cookies, you must be using its latest version.

• Web cache files: No temporary Internet files or cached files from web pages will be saved.

Note:

• If you create new Bookmarks while using Private Browsing, they will not be removed when you stop Private Browsing.


• If you save files to your computer while using Private Browsing, they will not be deleted when you stop Private Browsing. However, any files you open in an external application will be cleared from the system's temporary folder, and none of the files you download will appear in the Downloads window list.

To start a Private Browsing session:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and select Start Private Browsing.


2. When you turn on Private Browsing, Firefox alerts you that it will save your current windows and tabs for after you finish using Private Browsing. Click Start Private Browsing to continue.
   
   
   
   • Check the box next to "Do not show this message again" if you don't want to receive this alert when you turn on Private Browsing.


3. The Private Browsing information screen appears to confirm that you're in Private Browsing mode.

When browsing in Private Browsing mode, the Firefox button will be purple (for Windows XP the window title will say (Private Browsing) instead) during your session.

To always start Firefox in Private Browsing:

There is a setting in the Options window that automatically enables Private Browsing whenever you start Firefox.

If you enter Private Browsing this way, the Firefox button won't turn purple (Windows XP, the Firefox title bar won't say (Private Browsing)) but Firefox will still not retain history as described above.

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options.


2. Select the Privacy panel.


3. Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.


4. Check the box next to Always use private browsing mode.


5. Click OK to close the Options window.

Clear Recent History

Forgot to turn on Private Browsing? No problem. You can delete the most recent sites you visited with just a few clicks.

To Clear Recent History:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button, go over to the History menu and select Clear Recent History...
   For Windows XP: At the top of the Firefox window, click the Tools menu and select Clear Recent History...


2. Select how much history you want to clear:
   
   
   
   • Click the drop-down menu next to Time range to clear to choose how much of your history Firefox will clear.
   
   
   • Next, click the arrow next to Details to select exactly what information will get cleared. Your choices are described in the What things are included in my history? section above.


3. Finally, click the Clear Now button and the window will close and the items you've selected will be cleared.

NOTE: If you need to clear your history every time you use Firefox, you can set it to happen automatically on exit so you don’t forget.

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options.


2. Select the Privacy panel.


3. Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.


4. Check the box for Clear history when Firefox closes.


5. To specify what types of history should be cleared, click the Settings... button next to Clear history when Firefox closes.


6. In the Settings for Clearing History window, check the items that you want to have cleared automatically each time you quit Firefox.


7. After selecting the history to be cleared, click OK to close the Settings for Clearing History window.


8. Click OK to close the Options window.

Forget This Site

If you're having second thoughts about visiting a specific site, but don't want to lose your whole history, you can remove any trace of it from your browser. It's like it never existed in the first place. (What site? Exactly.)

To remove a single website from my history:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button, go over to the History menu (For Windows XP: click the History menu) and select Show All History to open the Library window.


2. Search for the website you want to remove from your history by typing its name in the Search History field in the top-right corner and then pressing Enter.


3. Then, in the search results, right-click on the site you want to remove, and select Forget About This Site.


4. Finally, close the Library window.

NOTE: All history items (browsing and download history, cookies, cache, active logins, passwords, saved form data, exceptions for cookies, images, pop-ups) for that site will be removed.