How to always open Safari in a private window

With privacy becoming a hotter topic these days, web users are becoming more and more wary about what they share online. While there are many different steps that can be taken to increase your online privacy, a very simple way to get started is to use a web browser in Private mode.

In this post, you will learn about what Private mode means in Safari, and you will find out how to always open Safari in a private window to make this simple precaution an automatic way of accessing the web on your Mac, your iPhone, or your iPad.

What is Private mode?

Anytime you use Private browsing on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, Safari automatically prevents websites from tracking your activity, and the browser will not save any of your browsing data.

Additionally, Safari enables a bunch of privacy-oriented feature to increase your security. To read a comprehensive list of things Safari does when using private browsing, make sure to refer to our post about how to use private windows in Safari for Mac.

How to always open Safari in Private mode on Mac

You likely already know how to open a new private window in Safari on Mac, but there is also a setting that can be activated to make this the default mode for web browsing.

1) Launch Safari on your Mac.

2) In the Menu Bar, go to Safari > Preferences, and click on the General tab.

3) Look for the top menu that read Safari opens with and select A new private window.

Going forward, any time you launch a new window, it will open in Private mode. This preference will stick even if you quit Safari or reboot your Mac.

How to always open Safari in Private mode on iPhone or iPad

Things are slightly different on iPhone and iPad since there isn’t an actual setting you can enable to always launch Safari in Private mode. However, a simple trick will allow you to do just that.

1) Open a new private tab in Safari on your iPhone or iPad.

2) Leave that tab in the foreground in Safari, meaning, do not disable Private mode.

Next time you launch Safari, it will show that private tab. And if you decide to open a new tab, it will open that tab in Private mode as well. If you exit Private mode though, the next tab you open will not be private.

For more privacy tips on iOS, make sure to read our post about how to increase privacy in Safari for iPhone and iPad.