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Settings for privacy, browsing history and do-not-track

This article describes the settings that are available in the Waterfox Options Privacy panel.

The Privacy panel allows you to:

  • Control how Waterfox handles your history, which includes what pages you’ve visited, what files you’ve downloaded, what you’ve entered into forms, and what cookies sites have sent you.
  • Control what sites can send you cookies and remove cookies that sites have sent you.
  • Control how the Location bar (address bar) uses your history to suggest matches for what you type in it.

Privacy panel 38

Tracking

Tell sites that I do not want to be tracked: Checking this box will tell websites that you wish to opt-out of tracking by advertisers and other third-parties. Honoring this setting is voluntary — individual websites are not required to respect it. See How do I turn on the Do Not Track feature? for more information.

History

The Waterfox will setting controls how Waterfox saves information about your web browsing.

Remember history

When Waterfox will is set to Remember history:

Click on:

Never remember history

When Waterfox will is set to Never remember history:

  • Waterfox will keep no record of your browsing history.
  • The files you download will not be listed in the Downloads window.
  • The text you enter into form fields or the search bar will not be remembered.
  • Waterfox will accept cookies from sites and delete them when you close Waterfox. For more information on cookies, see Cookies - Information that websites store on your computer.

Using Never remember history is equivalent to always being in Waterfox Private Browsing mode. For more information, see Private Browsing - Use Waterfox without saving history.

Click on clear all current history to open the Clear Recent History window, which allows you to erase some or all of your history quickly. For more information, see Delete browsing, search and download history on Waterfox.

Use custom settings for history

Use custom settings for history

When Waterfox will is set to Use custom settings for history, the following settings will be available:

  • Always use private browsing mode: If selected, Waterfox will not remember any new history the next time it starts. For more information, see Private Browsing - Use Waterfox without saving history.
  • Remember my browsing and download history: If selected, Waterfox will keep a list of the pages you’ve visited and the files you’ve downloaded. For more information about downloaded files, see Where to find and manage downloaded files in Waterfox.
  • Remember search and form history: If selected, the text you enter into form fields or the search bar will be remembered so you can use those entries again. For more information, see Control whether Waterfox automatically fills in forms.
  • Accept cookies from sites: If selected, Waterfox will accept cookies from sites. Click Exceptions… to control whether some sites are not allowed to set cookies. For more information, see Block websites from storing cookies and site data in Waterfox.
    • Accept third-party cookies: Always: Waterfox will always accept cookies from http://site2.com when you are visiting http://site1.com. From Visited: If you have visited http://site2.com previously, Waterfox will accept cookies from this site when you are visiting http://site1.com, otherwise Waterfox will not accept them. Never: Waterfox will never accept cookies from http://site2.com when you are visiting http://site1.com. For more information, see Third-party cookies and Waterfox tracking protection.
    • Keep until: they expire: If selected, Waterfox will allow the sites you visit to specify how long Waterfox should keep their cookies. I close Waterfox: If selected, your cookies will be deleted when you close Waterfox. ask me every time: If selected, Waterfox will ask you how long to keep a cookie each time a site tries to set one.Click Show Cookies… to display the Cookies window. For more information on the Cookies window, see Clear cookies and site data in Waterfox.
  • Clear history when Waterfox closes: Certain saved items will be deleted when you close Waterfox. Click Settings… to control what items are deleted. Note: Under certain circumstances, this function will not run:
    • Waterfox did not shut down normally. If Waterfox crashes, you will need to start Waterfox and exit/quit normally to ensure that this function runs.
    • Waterfox is set to use automatic private browsing. History retained from regular sessions can only be cleared from a regular window. To change between regular mode and automatic private browsing, see: Private Browsing - Use Waterfox without saving history.

Location Bar

The Location Bar is the field where you enter a site’s web address (URL). The Location Bar suggests results as you type in a search based on the following:

  • History: If selected, sites you’ve previously visited will appear on your results list.
  • Bookmarks: Sites you’ve bookmarked will appear on your results list. These results appear with the blue star next to them.
  • Open tabs: Select this if you want tabs that are currently open to appear in your results list. This is especially useful if you have many tabs open.