Hi Stefan,
I too would love a feature like this. We have thought about creating a
fast-profile switching feature, but aren't sure how many users would
benefit from it. Advanced users may open up a tab and set the
appropriate context (work, personal, internet, etc) before navigating,
but would regular users understand how to use this feature? Even if
they do understand it, would they bother using it? Should we try and
predict the profile the user wants to use based on where they are
navigating to? How would we do that? Before scoping and implementing
the engineering work required to support this, we have considered
creating an add-on that emulates this fast profile switching behavior
(but doesn't actually switch profiles) to see how user's interact with
it. That could be a first step to see whether the feature would be
useful and exactly what user's expect out of it.
Monica Chew has been tinkering with a project called Contextual Identity
(https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Contextual_Identity_Project) and
recently wrote a paper on it
(http://www.w2spconf.com/2013/papers/s1p2.pdf). If you have ideas on
how to materialize the concept or have time to contribute to any of
these projects, we'd love the help.
~Tanvi
On 7/2/13 3:11 PM, M Stefan wrote:
Hello,
With the continuously rising issues of privacy and tracking,
I believe it is important to be able to easily own multiple
independent identities on the Web. Creating multiple gmail accounts takes
a small amount of effort, but keeping them "untied" to each other
is difficult. Google can easily figure out, based on your cookies,
which other accounts you have signed into, allowing them to connect
the accounts together. That is, all their tracking data can be merged
together (search history etc.). It is not uncommon to desire to
separate your
"internet identity" from your "personal identity" and "work identity",
therefore doing so should not be a difficult task.
What I find interesting is the possibility of having multiple sets of
cookies, cached data, stored passwords etc. on your browser. This is
currently achieved through profiles, but this is a bit messy. Opening
multiple profiles at once is troublesome, requires separate browsing
windows
and only allows at most one "remote" window. Typically, one opens the
browser
with -profilemanager -no-remote. Clicking external links does not
allow picking which profile should the link be opened in (you have to
open
exactly one window without -no-remote).
Would it be possible to implement lightweight profiles? They would
work with different sets of cookies etc., but would run in the same
browser instance (different tab group). Switching from "Gmail identity"
to "Facebook identity" would only be a matter of switching between tab
groups.
Bonus points for being able to have "shared" as well as "private" cookies
and passwords. Also for identity groups. Even more bonus points if you
are
forbidden from authenticating to a website using an account destined to
other identity (preventing you from making mistakes, leaking your other
identity to the first).
Consider the following scenario:
- I want to be logged in on YouTube at all times (to listen to music
and favorite the songs that I like)
- I do not want Google to know what sites I'm visiting (which he can
track via analytics, adwords and then tie to the account I'm logged
in as)
Using lightweight profiles, I would simply have a separate YouTube
identity.
A more sophisticated set of identities would look like:
Work -> Work email, Work browsing, Work LinkedIn
Personal -> Facebook, Personal Gmail, Personal Browsing
Internet -> Gaming Forum, Gaming Email, Pr0n
Has this idea been implemented anywhere? Are there any plans to
implement it?
Is it too sophisticated to be considered?
Privacy concerns are rising, and it appears the proper way to browse
is with Adblock,
NoScript and DoNotTrackMe.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.
Stefan
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