Firefox has two tabs, the Protect Tab and the Lock Tab. The Protect Tab is used to keep your browsing private and the Lock Tab is used to keep your browsing secure. When you use the Protect Tab, Firefox will ask you if you want to keep your browsing private. If you answer yes, Firefox will create a security password for your account and will not let other people access your browsing data without it. If you answer no, Firefox will not create a security password and other people can still access your browsing data. When you use the Lock Tab, Firefox will ask you if you want to keep your browsing secure. If you answer yes, Firefox will create a security password for your account and will not let other people access your browsing data without it. If you answer no, Firefox will allow other people to access your data but they won’t be able to view or change any of the content in your browser.
There are two options that provide similar but possibly confusing functionality. You can see in the screenshot below the Protect Tab and Lock Tab on the menu.
Here’s when you should use each feature:
Protect Tab
If you want to make sure that a tab cannot be closed. This is useful to make certain you don’t accidentally close a tab.
Lock Tab
A lock tab cannot navigate to a new URL. This means that it is “locked” on the current URL. If you have this tab selected and you click a bookmark link, history, or a link on the page, the link will open in a new tab.
You can also combine the two on a single tab. For instance, I both lock and protect my Google Reader tab, which I always keep as the first tab so I can quickly switch back to it.
