[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-628478-105":59,"doc-detail-628478-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","exploring-the-protection-of-private-browsing-in-desktop-browsers-article-abstract","Exploring the protection of private browsing in desktop browsers - Article - Abstract","","Desktop browsers provide a private browsing mode intended to protect users’ data by not storing private-session information in the filesystem. With increasing privacy concerns in a post-Snowden environment, research evaluates how well this control prevents privacy violations. Experiments focus on Windows desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera), identifying cases where private sessions still leak browsing-related artefacts. The study proposes a virtual filesystem countermeasure for browser cache storage.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exploring-the-protection-of-private-browsing-in-desktop-browsers-article-abstract/628478/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/exploring-the-protection-of-private-browsing-in-desktop-browsers-article-abstract/628478.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Lucas Martin","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-26","2026-10-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main security goal of private browsing mode in desktop browsers?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It aims to protect the confidentiality of users’ data generated during a private browsing session by avoiding storage in the filesystem.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which desktop browsers and platform are examined in the study?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The study investigates private browsing protection in Windows desktop browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What findings does the research report about privacy violations in private browsing?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Even with private sessions, privacy violations can occur due to browsing artefacts being stored contrary to the browsers’ documentation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},628478,1793052070,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},8796095360427,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","computers & security 67 (2017) 181– 197  \nAvailable online [at](at www.sciencedirect.com)[ www.sciencedirect.com](at www.sciencedirect.com)  \nScienceDirect  \njournal homepage: [www. elsevier.com/locate/co se](www. elsevier.com/locate/co se)  \n|  Exploring the protection of private browsing in desktop browsers |  | |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Nikolaos Tsalis a,*, Alexios Mylonas b, Antonia Nisioti b, Dimitris Gritzalis a, Vasilios Katos b\u003Cbr>a Information Security & Critical Infrastructure Protection (INFOSEC) Laboratory, Dept. of Informatics, Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece\u003Cbr>b Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom |  |  |\n| A R T I C L E I N F O | A B S T R A C T |  |\n| Article history: | Desktop browsers have introduced private browsing mode, a security control which aims to |  |\n| Received 24 March 2016 | protect users’ data that are generated during a private browsing session by not storing them |  |\n| Received in revised form 4 March | in the filesystem. As the Internet becomes ubiquitous, the existence of this security control |  |\n| 2017 | is beneficial to users, since privacy violations are increasing, while users tend to be more |  |\n| Accepted 7 March 2017 | concerned about their privacy when browsing the web in a post-Snowden era. In this context, |  |\n| Available online 14 March 2017 | this work examines the protection that is offered by the private browsing mode of the most popular desktop browsers in Windows (i.e., Chrome, Firefox, IE and Opera) . Our experiments uncover occasions in which even if users browse the web with a private session, privacy |  |\n| Keywords: |  |  |\n| Private browsing | violations exist contrary to what is documented by the browser. To raise the bar of privacy |  |\n| Web browser | protection that is offered by web browsers, we propose the use of a virtual filesystem as |  |\n| Web security | the storage medium of browsers’ cache data. We demonstrate with a case study how this |  |\n| Browsing artefacts | countermeasure protects users from the privacy violations, which are previously identi- |  |\n| Privacy | fied in this work. |  |\n|  | © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |  |\n\n1. Introduction  \nSince Internet penetration has risen in the last years (almost 3.4 million users by the end of 2015 (Internetworldstats, 2016)) it is important to preserve an adequate level of privacy to protect the average user while browsing the web. Average users, i.e., those who are not technical, nor security savvy, rely on the default security countermeasures that are provided by the popular web browsers, such as protection from sites serving malware or hosting phishing attacks. However, previous works have revealed that the actual protection offered by these con-  \ntrols is rather limited (Virvilis et al., 2014; Tsalis et al., 2015a; Virvilis et al., 2015; Tsalis et al., 2015b; Mylonas et al., 2013) .  \nPrivate browsing is a security control implemented by all popular web browsers in order to provide enhanced privacy to the end user while browsing the web (Google, 2016a; Google, 2016b; Mozilla, 2016; Microsoft, 2016a; Opera, 2016). Its primary goal is to protect the confidentiality of users’ data, which are generated in a private browsing session, by avoiding to store them in the filesystem. In contrast, when the user is not under a private session (hereinafter this paper will refer to this mode as normal mode), the data generated while she is browsing the web are stored in the filesystem for usability (e.g., facilitate  \n* Corresponding author.  \nE-mail addresses: [ntsalis@aueb.gr](ntsalis@aueb.gr) (N. Tsalis), dgrit@aueb.gr (D. Gritzalis), [amylonas@bournemouth.ac.uk](amylonas@bournemouth.ac.uk) (A. Mylonas), anisioti@  \n[bournemouth.ac.uk](bournemouth.ac.uk) (A. Nisioti), [vkatos@bournemouth.ac.uk](vkatos@bournemouth.ac.uk) (V. Katos).  \n[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2017.03.006](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2017.03.006)  \n[0167-4048/](0167-4048/)© ","cbCaie9iMQYkyhEQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaie9iMQYkyhEQ","pdf",5306009,17,"English","# Introduction\n## Related work\n# Methodology\n# Survey and test results\n# Case study\n## Discussion and conclusion","[{\"question\":\"What is the main security goal of private browsing mode in desktop browsers?\",\"answer\":\"It aims to protect the confidentiality of users’ data generated during a private browsing session by avoiding storage in the filesystem.\"},{\"question\":\"Which desktop browsers and platform are examined in the study?\",\"answer\":\"The study investigates private browsing protection in Windows desktop browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera.\"},{\"question\":\"What findings does the research report about privacy violations in private browsing?\",\"answer\":\"Even with private sessions, privacy violations can occur due to browsing artefacts being stored contrary to the browsers’ documentation.\"}]","Exploring the protection of private browsing in desktop browsers - Article - Abstract | PDF",1792616731,43]