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Issue 34349 additional incognito key advice#44358

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rebloor:Issue-34349-incognito-key-advice
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Issue 34349 additional incognito key advice#44358
rebloor wants to merge 1 commit into
mdn:mainfrom
rebloor:Issue-34349-incognito-key-advice

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@rebloor rebloor commented Jun 4, 2026

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Description

These changes fix #34349 by adding advice on removing the key and guarding against leaks between private and non-private browsing windows, as per #33661 (comment) and #33661 (review).

@rebloor rebloor requested review from Rob--W and bacharakis June 4, 2026 23:50
@rebloor rebloor self-assigned this Jun 4, 2026
@rebloor rebloor requested a review from a team as a code owner June 4, 2026 23:50
@rebloor rebloor added the Content:WebExt WebExtensions docs label Jun 4, 2026
@github-actions github-actions Bot added the size/s [PR only] 6-50 LoC changed label Jun 4, 2026
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github-actions Bot commented Jun 4, 2026

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## Example
## Privacy considerations

If your extension needs to maintain the privacy expectations of the private browsing mode, omit the `incognito` key from your `manifest.json`. Omitting the key preserves the default behavior where the extension doesn't run in private browsing windows.

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The blanket advice is not to delete the incognito key. The deletion of the key is conditional on the extension having implemented proper separation of private and non-private browsing data as needed.

The only reason for deletion of the property is if it is set to "spit" mode. In Chrome that results in stronger separation, but Firefox doesn't support "split", so we fall back to spanning behavior with the extension being disabled in private browsing mode (as already documented in the article).

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Additional advice on use of incognito key

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