As if Microsoft doesn’t have enough explaining to do when it comes to security on Windows 10, a recent investigation of Edge has revealed that the stock browser’s InPrivate mode doesn’t keep a user’s browsing history private at all.
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According to security researcher Ashish Singh, the private browsing data that is supposed to be expunged the minute a user closes a private window is instead stored in the browser’s WebCache file. By examining the “Container_n” table that stores web history, anyone can see the tabs that were opened while a user was browsing in private mode.
“Therefore any skilled investigator can easily spot the difference and get concrete evidence against a person’s wrongdoings,” writes Singh. “Plenty of artifacts are maintained by the browser, which makes examination quite easy. However, there are stages where evidence is not so easy to find. The not-so-private browsing featured by Edge makes its very purpose seem to fail.”
Testing Singh’s method, The Verge was able to find evidence in the WebCache of a site visited while browsing with an InPrivate tab.
“We recently became aware of a report that claims InPrivate tabs are not working as designed,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge when reached for comment, “and we are committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.”
