Cookies Linger After Closing a Private Window FF 24
This concerns Firefox 24. I have been using Firefox 19 since it came out and then last week upgraded directly to 24. The new way the Private Browsing works is a surprise to me. I am stunned and annoyed to see this instance of cookies leaking from the Private Window to the regular window. As you read what I wrote below, keep in mind that this has happened multiple times, so it's not an intermittent issue.
Here's exactly what I did. I closed Firefox completely. I have it set to clear the cache and cookies when I close, so all that is gone. I then opened Firefox and had, of course, a regular window on the screen. I checked that there were no cookies stored. I clicked File/New Private Window and went to Amazon.com and signed into my account. After about a half hour of looking at products, I clicked Sign Out on Amazon and CLOSED the private window. On the regular Firefox window I then clicked Tools, Options, Show Cookies and there is an "amazon" folder staring back at me. When I looked into that, there are 3 cookies, named "ubid-time", "session-id-time", and "session-id". I know Amazon will put cookies onto the PC during a session, but what is the point of the Private Window if the cookies are still there after I close the Private Window?
When I check History, the Amazon pages are not there, so it is at least not retaining a record of the Amazon pages I visited, but private means private. If the Amazon cookies are still there, that's not private. Those cookies are there to identify me.
I used Firefox 19 for a long time and I checked my cookies religiously with that--I liked the way Private worked on that since it changed the WHOLE browser over to private, not just a window. I would visit sites in Private mode and then click the menu option to return to regular and then immediately check cookies and NOTHING was there. So that's good. What happened with version 24? This is just not reliable and it's not private.
Here's extra information, but I think it's more just information about how Amazon works than how Firefox works. During my session in Amazon, as I clicked various products I kept checking the cookies on Firefox and there were none from Amazon. I checked cookies 5 separate times as I visited various pages. Only when I signed OUT of Amazon did I then see cookies in the browser. If you want to replicate my issue, keep that in mind.
All Replies (4)
Hello,
It seems link i don't have that problem, i tested that now i cleared all the cookie and history then logged into Google and Amazon account no cookie data was stored in the normal firefox window.
May be this can solve your problem, please inform if it didn't
Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:
Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.
- Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
- After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
- Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
- Windows:
- C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
- Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
- Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
- Windows:
- Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
- Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
- Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.
Please report back to see if this helped you!
Thank you.
Is this problem unique to Amazon, or does it occur on other sites that set persistent cookies, such as this one?
This is a reply both to the person who said he doesn't see it happen (anushbmx) and to the person who asked if it's only Amazon (jscher2000).
I have only seen it happen with Amazon; however, I have only had the FF24 installed for about 3 days.
It won't happen immediately with Amazon, for whatever reason, perhaps related to how Amazon writes cookies, so that could be why you didn't see it yourself. After I posted the question I went back to Amazon to order a book, which I did very quickly and with a minimum of extraneous clicking on the site. I went to the Amazon main page, entered the ISBN, clicked right through to the Used Copies page, clicked one to order, then signed in and entered a credit card number, signed out and closed the Private Window. Result: No Amazon cookies visible on the regular window.
Anytime before I saw the cookies after closing the Private Window it was after a whole lot of clicking in Amazon, but you should find it pretty easy to do. Right before I posted the question, I knew I could easily induce the leaking cookies, and I was able to do it deliberately like this: I signed in on Amazon in the Private Window, went directly to Recommendations and just chose various products there to click on and then also clicked on products on those products' pages that were suggested. So it just amounted to a whole lot of product clicking, including clicking on some listings for used books from the pages for the new books. If it matters to you, which it probably doesn't, I opened various product pages simultaneously by right clicking the links and opening new tabs, so I may have had 3 or 4 Amazon product pages open at once. I closed them before signing out. It only took about 5 minutes, but I guess the key elements were being signed in then clicking on a lot of products and then signing out.
The worrying thing, to me, is that, over the past few days, I have been able to duplicate it a few times on Amazon, so that is at least one site for which I get these leaking cookies.
I have been using Firefox ever since it came out (using Netscape Navigator before that) and, ever since they introduced the Private Browsing feature, I have never detected an issue like this. As you saw in my original question, I watch my cookies very closely, to the extent that I clear the cookies in my browser after almost every website, regardless of whether I have signed in. So I read something on Gizmodo, clear cookies, read something on BoingBoing, clear cookies, and so on, but I really shouldn't have to worry about cookies sticking around if I am on a site in a Private Window.
You would normally get a new set of cookies for Private Browsing mode windows or tabs.
This won't affect already saved cookies from that website (domain), so if you see them then those cookies may have been from a previous visit in normal (non Private Browsing) mode.
If clearing cookies doesn't work then it is possible that the cookies.sqlite file that stores the cookies is corrupted.
Rename (or delete) cookies.sqlite (cookies.sqlite.old) and delete other present cookie files like cookies.sqlite-journal in the Firefox profile folder in case the file cookies.sqlite got corrupted.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
- Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.