Disabling new Private Browsing? Old GPO doesn't work.

[genwafflespie]

Due to security issues at our site we are not allowed to run Incognito or Private mode on our browsers. This was previously blocked by GPO on our machines. But the new Private Browsing introduced with ver 106 is by-passing this GPO put in place. When launching the browser from the Private Browsing shortcut on the start menu or from the exe (private_browsing.exe) we are prompted with a message this is blocked by our Organization, but we are able to still browse with Private browsing on (The logo is on top right and is in dark mode).

The only exception to this is if the normal FireFox is launched ahead of the Private version. Then the Private version will not run in Private mode (Logo is gone and no dark mode). But if launched by its self, Private mode doesn't honor the GPO put in place.

Has anyone else seen this? Are there any plans to be able to address this issue with a new policy? Right now the only work around is to remove the start menu short cut and block the exe from running.

[StupidFox]

Yep, happened to me too. **bleep**ing Firefox installed this crap in my start menu, and I cannot remove it. If anyone knows how to remove that crap, please let me know. Those stupid **bleep**ers in Firefox are just ASKING for their **bleep**ty browser to be uninstalled by as many users as possible. A totally Microsoft/Apple approach to users - "We know better what you need". **bleep** YOU SIDEWAYS, ASSHOLES.

[jscher2000]

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@genwafflespie wrote:

Due to security issues at our site we are not allowed to run Incognito or Private mode on our browsers. This was previously blocked by GPO on our machines. But the new Private Browsing introduced with ver 106 is by-passing this GPO put in place. When launching the browser from the Private Browsing shortcut on the start menu or from the exe (private_browsing.exe) we are prompted with a message this is blocked by our Organization, but we are able to still browse with Private browsing on (The logo is on top right and is in dark mode).

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I haven't tested the policy with Firefox 106 (regular release) since I'm in the midst of using it...

I added "DisablePrivateBrowsing": true to my policies.json file for Firefox Developer Edition (future Firefox 107, scheduled for release on November 15th). I do get the error message in the about:privatebrowsing page, unlike your experience, I have the regular theme and no mask on the title bar. All browsing appears to be non-private judging from the presence of history entries when starting normally.

I didn't test FDE with GPO (I don't control that), but at least in theory, GPO and policies.json work interchangeably.

You could file a bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ .

[mkaply]

So although everything says private browsing in the UI, it is not private browsing. If you close and reopen, you'll see things in the history.

The fact that you see any private browsing UI at all is an issue, though, I'll get a bug opened for that.

[mkaply]

I opened https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1797806

[genwafflespie]

Thank you for opening up the bug ticket!  You are correct.  when i launch "private_browsing.exe" i am able to still see history there.