The preference (checkbox?) could be accompanied by a paragraph like

"When enabled, Epiphany will not store any trace of your browsing history on your disk."

I agree, this is worth adding. It would be an easy task for a new contributor.

I volunteer to do this task, although I already have to admit that it will take some time for me to study the Epiphany source. :-)

Thanks. You'll want to look at src/ephy-main.c, src/prefs-dialog.c, and src/resources/prefs-dialog.ui! (Be sure to open the UI file in a text editor like gedit, not Glade.)

Also: data/org.gnome.Epiphany.gschema.xml.

I made a first draft about this enhancement. Should we disable the option to start a "normal Window" in the app-menu if "private mode by default" is activated? Thats the only issue i ran into at the moment. Or should it be possible to browse in normal mode even if we start by default in private mode.

> I made a first draft about this enhancement. Should we disable the option to
> start a "normal Window" in the app-menu if "private mode by default" is
> activated? Thats the only issue i ran into at the moment. Or should it be
> possible to browse in normal mode even if we start by default in private
> mode.

Dear Günther,

foremost it's great that you are working on this issue.

I think the option to open non-private windows should still be enabled, since there might be operations where non-private functions are still useful (e.g. the Password Manager functions).

However, opening a new window by pressing Ctrl+n in private mode should open another private window.

(In reply to q8311692 from comment #7)
> I think the option to open non-private windows should still be enabled,
> since there might be operations where non-private functions are still useful
> (e.g. the Password Manager functions).
> 
> However, opening a new window by pressing Ctrl+n in private mode should open
> another private window.

Seems reasonable to me. Our Incognito Mode has a conspicuously-different theme, so it is not likely users will accidentally open normal windows, so long as Ctrl+N opens an incognito window.

Created attachment 325448 [details] [review]
Implementation for "always privacy mode"

Review of attachment 325448 [details] [review]:

Thanks! It looks mostly good, but I see a few things could be improved:

::: data/org.gnome.epiphany.gschema.xml
@@ +194,3 @@
 			<description>Whether to block the embedded advertisements that web pages might want to show.</description>
 		</key>
+        <key type="b" name="start-in-privacy-mode">

This isn't indented properly; this file uses tabs (8-space tabs)

::: lib/ephy-file-helpers.c
@@ +1023,2 @@
 void
+ephy_open_window (const char *uri, gboolean incognito)

Let's rename this to "ephy_file_launch_ephy_process" to make it more clear that it works by launching a new process. Otherwise, it's not clear why there's any value in having the old codepath in window_cmd_file_new_window (the value being to avoid spawning an unnecessary process).

Boolean parameters are confusing to use, since you have to look up the function declaration to figure out the meaning of TRUE and FALSE. Instead, you should make an enum that would live in ephy-file-helpers.h, something like this:

typedef enum {
  EPHY_OPEN_NORMAL_WINDOW,
  EPHY_OPEN_INCOGNITO_WINDOW
} EphyOpenWindowType;

But I think you really do not need this argument at all.

@@ +1027,3 @@
   GError *error = NULL;
 
+  command = g_strdup_printf ("epiphany ");

There's no need or value in heap allocating this...

@@ +1030,3 @@
+
+  if (incognito) {
+    char *str = g_strconcat (command, "--incognito-mode --profile ", ephy_dot_dir (), NULL);

...just hardcode it here as "epiphany --incognito mode --profile"...

@@ +1031,3 @@
+  if (incognito) {
+    char *str = g_strconcat (command, "--incognito-mode --profile ", ephy_dot_dir (), NULL);
+    g_free (command);

Then you can get rid of the g_free.

@@ +1035,3 @@
+  } else {
+    char *str = g_strconcat (command, "--new-window ", NULL);
+    g_free (command);

Ditto.

@@ +1049,2 @@
   if (error) {
+    g_warning ("Couldn't open link in window: %s", error->message);

"Couldn't open link in new process: %s"

::: lib/ephy-prefs.h
@@ +86,3 @@
 #define EPHY_PREFS_WEB_DO_NOT_TRACK          "do-not-track"
 #define EPHY_PREFS_WEB_ENABLE_ADBLOCK        "enable-adblock"
+#define EPHY_PREFS_START_IN_PRIVACY_MODE     "start-in-privacy-mode"

EPHY_PREFS_START_IN_INCOGNITO_MODE "start-in-incognito-mode"

Just to keep consistent terminology. And because incognito mode is really terrible at actually guaranteeing any privacy.

::: src/ephy-main.c
@@ +346,3 @@
   }
 
+  if (g_settings_get_boolean (EPHY_SETTINGS_WEB, EPHY_PREFS_START_IN_PRIVACY_MODE) && !open_in_new_window) {

I think we should add a new --no-incognito-mode flag for this, or better, add an optional argument to the existing --incognito-mode flag to take an optional boolean =0 or =1 parameter. It doesn't make sense to me that 'epiphany --new-window' should override the incognito mode setting.

::: src/resources/prefs-dialog.ui
@@ +587,3 @@
+                    <child>
+                        <object class="GtkCheckButton" id="start_privacy_epiphany">
+                            <property name="label" translatable="yes">_Start Web in privacy mode</property>

I know this is exactly where I asked you to put this, but thinking about it some more, let's put it on the General tab, right above "Remember previous tabs on startup." Indent the remember previous tabs setting by 12 pixels to show the hierarchy, and set it insensitive whenever the private browsing option is enabled. You can probably do this really easily in prefs-dialog.c by using one more call to g_settings_bind with the "sensitive" property rather than the "active" property, and G_SETTINGS_BIND_INVERT_BOOLEAN.

::: src/window-commands.c
@@ +881,3 @@
+
+  if (g_settings_get_boolean (EPHY_SETTINGS_WEB, EPHY_PREFS_START_IN_PRIVACY_MODE)) {
+    ephy_open_window (NULL, FALSE);

This merits a comment: /* Need a new process to launch a non-incognito window */

(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #10)
> But I think you really do not need this argument at all.

Sorry, ignore that, it was from an earlier draft of my review.

(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #10)
> I know this is exactly where I asked you to put this, but thinking about it
> some more, let's put it on the General tab, right above "Remember previous
> tabs on startup." Indent the remember previous tabs setting by 12 pixels to
> show the hierarchy, and set it insensitive whenever the private browsing
> option is enabled. You can probably do this really easily in prefs-dialog.c
> by using one more call to g_settings_bind with the "sensitive" property
> rather than the "active" property, and G_SETTINGS_BIND_INVERT_BOOLEAN.

Well maybe it will need a bit more work, because that would not turn off the remember tabs setting, which we ought to do in this case.

I suppose this is a nice addition but just writing here how I "fixed" this in my local desktop.

I created a new freedesktop (.desktop) launcher for Epiphany in private mode.

That way, I have 2 launchers:
 * Normal Ephy
 * Incognito mode Ephy

Would I want to add "Incognito mode Ephy" as the default working mode, I just register it as the default browser. In GNOME this is pretty easy.

So, that would involve just adding a new .desktop.in file in the data directory. I know that the current .desktop.in file has the [Desktop Action Incognito] additional action but that is not enough to have it as default action. It seems the only way is adding an additional launcher.

Created attachment 344072 [details] [review]
always open in privacy mode https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=762308

Review of attachment 344072 [details] [review]:

I reviewed this on IRC when it was posted, but forgot to update this bug. The preferences dialog needs some work.

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