Retaining session in private browsing Safari

Question

Level 1

15 points

Retaining session in private browsing Safari

I'm comparatively new to Mac OS.

I was a Chrome user before. In Incognito mode, it preserves the session, i.e., if you have logged in to Google and you open YouTube in the same window (but in a new tab), it automatically signs me in for that particular Gmail user in YouTube, whereas in Safari private window mode, I have to login everytime I open something new in a new tab.

I was wondering if I could make it just like Chrome by changing a few settings.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 22, 2015 6:44 AM

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Answer 1

dastaan90 Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 23, 2015 8:09 AM in response to Barney-15E

@Barney-15E: Cognito mode (private browsing mode) in Chrome preserves session in the same window across all the tabs. It doesn't save any private data as far as I know. It goes same for Mozilla, i.e., it preserves the session data in the same window, in all the open tab. Just like it does in normal browsing in Safari, i.e., if you have gmail opened in a tab and if you open Youtube (a google service), it will automatically login via the same user where as in Safari private browsing, it doesn't. I have heard that Safari used to be like chrome before Yosemite update (I'm not sure, may be old users can confirm this fact).

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Answer 2

ivansky

Level 2

284 points

Aug 23, 2015 3:11 AM in response to dastaan90

Hi dastaan90, I did a bit of research into your intriguing question, which I think boils down to the idea that Google Chrome actually lets sessions share information across tabs even when in Incognito mode. I can't find anything definitive, but this question has been asked before in another forum, and someone said that no, Safari definitely isolates tabs from one another in Private mode. The reference is:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/162864/keep-sessions-between-private-ta bs

So I think if you want that particular behaviour, you would need to continue using Chrome, which is of course also available for OS X. I hope you are keeping in mind that if Chrome is logging you in to other Google sites automatically, there may be less privacy than you are expecting. It may be worth reading this article:

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/08/private-browsing-not-so-private.ars

Hope that helps.

Ivan

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Answer 3

dastaan90 Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 23, 2015 6:42 AM in response to ivansky

@ivansky: Thank you for replying.

I know that I can always use Chrome on Mac OS but chrome eats up a lot of battery as compared to safari. So, I was wondering if I can have the same functionality on Safari if possible. But it looks like, I will have to live it for now. 🙂

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,138 points

Aug 23, 2015 7:04 AM in response to dastaan90

I think you are missing the point on Private Browsing. It is supposed to not record anything so that the browsing history remains private. If you store information regarding the browsing history, it is no longer private.

I don't know what incognito mode is in Chrome, but it sounds like it anonymizes your browsing so the sites you visit can't track you. Private browsing in Safari does not do that.

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Answer 5

luis272

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2015 12:10 PM in response to dastaan90

Sharing session between private tabs would be very helpful. For instance every time you try to open a Google Docs (or iCloud) document it opens on a different tab and obviously you need to be authenticated to open it, since Safari doesn't share the same between tabs I can't open any Google document while being in private mode.

All of the major browsers support this why can't Safari have it also? And no I don't want to switch browsers.

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