Private browsing and site controls

Use File > New Private Tab or File > New Private Window. Check that the destination is Private before browsing. Private website data uses temporary storage separate from Regular browsing.

Private tabs and their browsing history are not restored. Files you deliberately save remain where you saved them. Private browsing does not erase records held by websites or conceal your connection from every service involved.

Bigfoot identity, wallet, publication, and contribution features are unavailable in Private browsing. A website help page can still open in a Private tab because reading the website is ordinary web browsing.

Click the site information button in the address bar. Site Controls opens for the page you’re on, with Connection, Site data, and Permissions rows; each opens its details in the same place, without leaving the page. With tiled pages, it applies to the tile you’re working in.

Whether your connection to the site is secure. When the browser engine provides the site’s certificate, View certificate opens it in your system’s certificate viewer.

Open Site data. It lists the site’s cookies and their details, but never their contents. You can delete one cookie, clear all the site’s cookies, or choose Clear all site data.

Open Permissions in Site Controls. Camera and Microphone can be set to Ask, Allow, or Block, and JavaScript to Allow or Block; a JavaScript change takes effect when the page reloads or you go to another page. A setting your operating system or the browser engine manages is shown but can’t be changed here, and its owner is named.

Bigfoot asks, naming the site that wants access. In Regular browsing, Allow and Block are remembered for that site. Closing the request without choosing refuses only that request. Your operating system’s own camera and microphone settings still apply.

On a Mac, Apple supports website notifications in Safari but doesn’t make them available to other browsers built on its web view, so Bigfoot can’t ask for or grant them. Select the row for a short explanation.

In Regular browsing, yes, for each site. In Private browsing, they last only until you close your last Private window.

Click the tracking protection button next to the site information button in the address bar and choose Turn off for this site. The page reloads. Turn protection back on undoes it.

First reload and check whether the website itself is available. If you change a protection or permission setting to diagnose a problem, change only what is needed for that site and review it afterwards. See Private browsing, blockers, and VPNs to understand their different jobs.

Standard is the default. Aggressive also applies protection to the site you’re visiting itself, which can stop some websites from working properly; Bigfoot warns you: Some websites may not work properly with Aggressive protection. Choose the level under Privacy in Settings; a change applies from the next page you load.

Yes, with the same setting as Regular browsing. If you turn it off for a site in Private browsing, that choice lasts only until you close your last Private window.