A month back, we’ve reported Mozilla is working not to allow extensions to run in Private browsing by default in Firefox browser, users need to manually give the permission to extensions for that, well, the change landed in Nightly and Firefox started showing notification about the changes to extensions in add-ons manager as well as in Private browsing.
Firefox 67 brings changes to extensions in Private browsing
Today, if you visit Extensions in Add-ons Manager in Firefox Nightly, you’ll notice a message about the change: “Nightly is changing how extensions work in private browsing. Any new extensions you add to Nightly won’t run by default in Private Windows. Unless you allow it in Settings, the extension won’t work while private browsing and won’t have access to your online activities there. We’ve made this to keep your private browsing private”
The message itself coveys that any new extensions won’t be allowed in PB but so the extensions you’ve installed before will be allowed seems that’s the case.
Give permission when you install Extensions
If you now install an extension from AMO, a notification will be shown with a checkbox to “Allow this extension to run in Private windows”, check it for the extension to work in Private browsing also.
If you’ve clicked OK in a hurry, you can make the change by visiting extensions’ settings in Add-ons Manager.
To allow or disallow extensions in Private Windows in Firefox
1. Click on hamburger menu,
2. Select add-ons > Extensions,
3. Click on an extension description, choose “Allow” setting for the extension to run in PB, default is set to ‘Don’t Allow’
Enable all the extensions in Private browsing
If you want all the extensions to be enabled in PB, toggle the below preference value to true and the Allow and Don’t allow settings for extension will disappear as a result.
extensions.
Another notification about the change:
When you open a Private window, Firefox shows a notification informing about changes they made to extensions in private browsing and offers “Manage Extensions” button to navigate to Extensions section in Add-ons manager to review the extensions you’ve installed and you can allow necessary and trusted ones such as adblocker or security-related ones, the extensions may spy on you in Private browsing, this change is right from Mozilla in Firefox case.
Btw, Firefox team readied extensions in Private browsing help page for the users.
What’s your take on this?