DocsPrivacy and security
Private windows
Browse without leaving history, cookies or site data on this computer once you close the window.
A private window keeps everything in memory and throws it away when you close it. Use it to sign in to an account just once, to shop for a present on a shared PC, or to see a site as a new visitor would.
Open a private window
Press Ctrl+Shift+N or Ctrl+Shift+P, or choose New private window from the ⋯ menu. The window’s title ends in “Luma (Private)”.
What isn’t kept
While private windows are open, they share one session: a site you sign in to in one private window is signed in in the others too. When you close the last private window, Luma deletes all of it:
- the pages you visited (they never go into your history),
- cookies, site data and the cache,
- the permissions you gave and the sites where you turned protections off,
- the list of downloads, and the exceptions you made for insecure or dangerous sites.
A private window starts empty. It doesn’t show the history or bookmarks of your normal windows, and anything you add to it, a bookmark included, goes when the private session ends.
What works differently
- Blocking works exactly as in your normal windows, with the same settings.
- Extensions don’t run in private windows.
- Passwords, addresses and cards are neither offered nor saved.
- Nothing is added to the statistics in the privacy dashboard.
- You can’t create workspaces there, and Sync and Profiles don’t appear in its settings.
What a private window doesn’t do
A private window hides your browsing from other people who use this PC. It doesn’t hide you from the sites you visit, from your network or from your internet provider. If you sign in to a site, that site knows it is you.