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Glossary
Profile isolation
Profile isolation is keeping each profile's browsing data in a folder of its own, so that two profiles cannot read each other.
What the separation is made of
Every profile gets a directory of its own, and the browser is handed that directory as it starts. Everything the engine writes goes there and nowhere else.
Cookies and sign-ins
The session that keeps an account logged in belongs to one profile and is unreachable from the next one.
Site storage
Local storage, databases and service workers are written inside the same folder.
Cache
Cached files live in that folder too and are never shared between two profiles.
Extensions
The ones you enabled load here only, next to a protection extension written for this profile.
Open tabs
The snapshot of what was open belongs to the profile, so a restart offers back that profile's tabs.
What this browser reports now
These values are read in your browser on this page. Separating folders changes none of them, which is why a profile also carries device values of its own.
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Where isolation stops
Two profiles on one computer share the computer. One clock source, one disk, one processor and one real address unless each profile has a way out of its own.
The exit address
Two profiles pointed at one proxy arrive at a site from one place, and the folders make no difference to that.
The machine underneath
Separate folders do not separate hardware. That is why the device values are derived per profile instead.
The person
Pace, working hours and the order of your actions cross every folder boundary there is.
Ties inside the platform
One card, one payout account or one document behind two accounts is a link made outside the browser.
Deleting and purging
Delete moves a profile to the recycle bin, and nothing on disk has been touched yet. Purge is the second button and it means what it says.
The browser is stopped and waited for first. Then the directory goes, along with the records that outlived the profile and the sealed session copy in a shared folder.
Often confused with
Incognito
It forgets when the window closes rather than holding two sessions apart at the same time.
A container tab
Storage is divided inside one browser, while the device values and the exit stay a single set.
A virtual machine
It divides everything at the cost of tens of gigabytes, and it announces itself as a virtual machine.
A second user account
It divides people at the computer rather than accounts at a site.
How to check it yourself
Sign in to one site in two profiles and leave both open. Each stays signed in as its own account, and signing out of one leaves the other alone.
The second half is the exit. Open the leak check inside each profile and compare what the address and the clock say there.
What this does not do
- Isolation is per profile rather than per machine. All your profiles share one computer, one clock source and one disk.
- It does not separate two profiles that point at the same proxy. They leave through one address and arrive as one place.
- It does not empty itself. A trashed profile keeps its cookies and its whole folder until you erase it for good.
- It does not stop a platform linking accounts by what you do. Behaviour, payment details and documents sit outside every folder.
Check it
Each claim above is one place in the code and one stand.
- Each profile is launched against a data directory of its own
- apps/desktop/src/lib/forkEngine.js
- Erasing a profile removes that directory and the records that outlived it
- apps/desktop/test/delete-leaves-nothing.js
- The sealed session copy in a shared folder goes with it
- apps/desktop/test/purge-clears-cloud.js
- The choice of extensions belongs to the profile and travels with it
- apps/desktop/test/ext-choice-travels.js
Questions
- Can one profile read another's cookies?
- No. The browser is given one directory and is never told that another one exists.
- Does it hide that two profiles share a computer?
- Not by itself. That is the job of the device values and of a separate way out for each profile.
- What happens to the folder when I delete a profile?
- Delete keeps it and purge removes it, together with the sealed session copy in a shared folder if you set one up.
- Do extensions cross between profiles?
- No. Your choice of extensions belongs to the profile and travels with it to your other computers.
- Is an ordinary browser's profile the same thing?
- It divides cookies and stops there. Here the folder, the device values, the exit and the extensions all belong to one profile at once.
Open two profiles and compare them
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