The private browsing mode in Safari on iOS7 is a failure of engineering so unlike what Apple is known for that they should be ashamed to ship it.

The issue is that it leaves session cookies enabled while it disables sessionStore. And all due to misguided ideas what this stuff can be used for.

I for one use the sessionStore to hold form data until the moment the user actually decides to take my offer and transact with me. in other words, I use the sessionStore to enhance my user’s privacy. And this is made harder by this misguided “feature”.

Private browsing in iOS Safari

  • is a misnomer: it decreases privacy
  • is a miscarriage of engineering: it breaks the browser
  • is opaque: not many understand what it does

and Apple is seriously pushing this crap? In iOS6 at least it what hidden in the Settings app. Now it is front and center in the tab switcher as one of only 3 buttons.

Apple should remove this feature. It does nothing for privacy, and everything to mess up the web.

</rant>