Remove "New Private Window" option from Tor Browser or make it a separate session

It doesn't do anything that I can tell. If it does, we should have more of an explanation to set user expectation.

For instance, I thought perhaps when I was logged into Twitter in another tab, it might isolate a separate session, but it does not. If I go to twitter.com in a "New Private Window", I am still logged into the same account.

added component::applications/tor browser owner::tbb-team parent::33658 priority::medium severity::normal sponsor::58 status::reopened type::defect ux-team labels

Well it tells you what it does: it opens a new private window. That's still a relic from a time where tabs where not in use so much and users had just different browser windows open. I think we might still have users that surf that way, so I am reluctant to just removing this feature.

That sounds like a "New Window" and not a "New Private Window." In other browsers, the Private Window is the one with the not-actually-private Private Browsing mode, which doesn't apply in Tor Browser.

Since private browsing is the default in Tor Browser, I can see how it is confusing to have "New Private Window" instead of simply "New Window." But people can disable "Always use private browsing mode" in their Tor Browser preferences, in which case Tor Browser will include two menu items (as in Firefox): "New Window" and "New Private Window."

What does disabling "always use private browsing mode" in Tor Browser do?

Replying to steph:

What does disabling "always use private browsing mode" in Tor Browser do?

It allows things to be written to disk, e.g., browser history. One way to look at it is that it disables the kinds of protections mentioned here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history#w_what-does-private-browsing-not-save

Replying to steph:

That sounds like a "New Window" and not a "New Private Window." In other browsers, the Private Window is the one with the not-actually-private Private Browsing mode, which doesn't apply in Tor Browser.

I don't think so. We are starting in private browsing mode and I as a user want to have a private window as well and not just some window, if I think I want to use an additional window. So, we should make the messaging pretty clear (as a vanilla Firefox does when started in "Always private browsing mode"). I think Mozilla got that part right. And, no, in Tor Browser we use a lot of the things the vanilla Private Browsing Mode provides against disk leaks, so it applies in Tor Browser. We "just" add the network level bits that other browser vendors did not take into account yet.

So, I think this is actually a wont't fix.

Trac:
Resolution: N/A to wontfix
Status: new to closed

Oh, there was the "or make it a separate session" part. Might be worth thinking about that one at least. How should that look like?

Trac:
Resolution: wontfix to N/A
Status: closed to reopened

It could give the ability to start a separate session for one domain. So, I'm logged into the Tor Project's twitter in one window. Then, I open a new private window to log into my personal twitter account without logging out of the Tor Project's account.

Since this doesn't work now, that is one reason I thought the "new private window" was misleading. I'd like to know the UX team's thoughts, too.

Replying to steph:

It could give the ability to start a separate session for one domain. IIRC Arthur proposed to have something like the multi containers functionality (you can try it on a vanilla Firefox 59 with this official addon) for multiple identities in the same session.

Trac:
Cc: ux-team to ux-team, arthuredelstein

Trac:
Cc: ux-team, arthuredelstein to arthuredelstein
Keywords: N/A deleted, ux-team added

Adding a comment here that on Android we have New private tab on the menu bar and Open Link in Private Tab when long-pressing on a link.

I wish we can work around this idea during S58. Tagging.

Trac:
Sponsor: N/A to Sponsor58

Trac:
Parent: N/A to #33658 (moved)

mentioned in issue #28163 (moved)

mentioned in issue #29678 (moved)

mentioned in issue #33658 (moved)

moved to tpo/applications/tor-browser#25660 (closed)