Skip to content

Private Data Sync

Today we are releasing an expanded version of Private Data Sync to include the ability to sync Identities.

Still in the experimental stage, this feature expands on the bookmarks sync that we released in April.

Sync has been our most requested feature but it took some time to design the solution because, quite frankly, we never really wanted your data on our servers.

The solution we came up with represents a unique approach to storing your data that truly puts you in control of it and enables sync capabilities between any computers you use your account on.

It’s called Private Data Sync and it works like this.  

You can store your browser data to any cloud based solution like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive or any similar service. Because you control your cloud account you can delete or move your data anywhere whenever you want.

Once you select a Private Data Sync storage location, you can access it from any computer. If you use Dropbox, for example, you just need to have Dropbox installed on all of the computers you use Ghost Browser on and the browser will be able to access it there.

Now, it’s true that your data still lives on the servers owned by your storage solution. However, it’s not stored in a way that Dropbox or Google can make any sense of it or use it to track your browsing.

Further your data is protected on those cloud solutions with the same Advanced Encryption Standard that is used by the US Government and other organizations world-wide. The data is protected by a key that only you know. So no one can open your files and peek inside either.

Since we are still helping you deal with potentially sensitive data, the first iteration of this feature is limited in the data it handles. At this point you can store and sync your bookmarks. We felt this was the least sensitive data in your browser, so we chose to use it to get the feature out into the wild before we dealt with more sensitive data.

In the future you will be able to sync more data types like Workspaces, Identities, autofill data, search history and as much data as possible to make your browser experience consistent across computers and keep it under your control.

You may have guessed, but this is also the beginning stage of allowing you to share your data with team members as well.

Private Data Sync is turned off by default. Even if you are not a heavy user of bookmarks we’d love for you to turn it on, try it and give us feedback so we can be sure all bases are covered before we expand the data we will help you sync.

To try it out please see this help article on how to enable it and start syncing your data. To provide feedback please email us.

11 Comments

  1. Jason Moss on April 17, 2020 at 8:49 am

    Yay!!! This is awesome! I don’t really use bookmarks but I’m glad you’re moving in this direction because I routinely hop around between 2 computers and it’s frustrating not having my identities on one of them. Any kind of ETA set for the next phase?

  2. R on May 11, 2020 at 10:06 am

    I love where this is going, but unless you can sync workspaces/identities/sessions, I’m not sure this adds that much value TBH

    • Larry Kokoszka on May 11, 2020 at 10:15 am

      I couldn’t agree more “R”.
      >Since we are helping you deal with potentially sensitive data, the first iteration of this feature is limited in the data it handles. At this point you can store and sync your bookmarks. We felt this was the least sensitive data in your browser, so we chose to use it to get the feature out into the wild before we dealt with more sensitive data.

    • Cat Kokoszka on June 8, 2020 at 11:01 am

      Hi “R” 👋 We just expanded sync to include Identities a couple days ago! You can learn how to enable it here: https://support.ghostbrowser.com/article/380-sync

      More sync capabilities to come!

  3. Connor Talbott on June 22, 2020 at 2:09 pm

    Please let me know when workspaces will sync. Keep up the awesome work, GB team. Love your product

    • Connor Talbott on July 27, 2020 at 2:02 pm

      Any update on this? Thanks, Connor

    • Larry Kokoszka on October 19, 2020 at 10:40 am

      Hi Connor. This has been released now along with sync of cookies!

  4. Jumar on September 30, 2020 at 1:04 am

    Useless update. Worst case is, half of my agents are experiencing issues now. All emails on all workspaces are logging out. Why don’t you just leave it as it is while you don’t yet have the full private data sync capabilities.

    And, where’s the Priority Customer service anyway for those who uses your premium accounts?

    • Larry Kokoszka on October 19, 2020 at 10:39 am

      Hi Jumar. Do you mind emailing us https://ghostbrowser.com/contact so we can understand better what issue you are having with your agents and emails?

  5. Jason on July 10, 2022 at 6:52 pm

    any idea why a new install of ghost just overwrites the private sync data when i try to load it from a backup. everything i have tried fails.

    password was saved in a manager, so i know its correct for the backup. but i cannot select the folder only the folder containing it, so it makes a new private sync folder. then i try to overwrite the contents of that and when i open ghost it just overwrites it again.

    what is the point if i cant actually select the sync folder, but only the folder that contains it and its going to make its own new folder each time?

Leave a Comment