Mozilla Firefox 3.1 is set to include a "privacy mode," aka the "porn mode," for its upcoming beta test in order to compete with Google's Chrome and Microsoft's IE8 versions currently in beta.
Browser privacy modes are known to limit or completely remove application records including URLs, cookies and other evidence when users surf the Internet.
"Private Browsing Mode: Ehsan [Akhgari] went and implemented Connor's functional spec bug 248970 - way to go! Now back on track for beta date," a note from a Firefox 3.1 status update meeting held Tuesday said, according to reports in Techworld.
The 248970 reference was directed at an entry in Bugzilla, Mozilla's bug and feature tracking system, where Firefox's lead developer, Mike Connor, outlined what the browsers privacy mode's primary function would be.
"[It should] ensure that users can't be tracked when doing 'private' things," Conner explained in an email exchange with another Mozilla developer.
The mode would explicitly discard all cookies obtained throughout the confidential session, cease to record the URLs of sites visited to the browser history, eliminate auto-fill passwords, remove user prompts to save passwords and keep the download manager from maintaining a history of downloads during the session.
Similar to many other features slotted for Firefox 3.1, the private-browsing mode was held back from the Firefox 3.0 upgrade version, which shipped in June.
Apple's Safari browser touts a private-browsing mode as well.
