--- a/mobile/android/base/java/org/mozilla/gecko/Tabs.java
+++ b/mobile/android/base/java/org/mozilla/gecko/Tabs.java
@@ -1091,16 +1091,17 @@ public class Tabs implements BundleEvent
     @RobocopTarget
     public Tab addTab() {
         return addTab(Tabs.LOADURL_NONE);
     }
 
     /**
      * Opens a new tab and loads a page according to the user's preferences (by default about:home).
      */
+    @RobocopTarget
     public Tab addPrivateTab() {
         return addTab(Tabs.LOADURL_PRIVATE);
     }
 
     /**
      * Opens a new tab and loads a page according to the user's preferences (by default about:home).
      *
      * @param flags additional flags used when opening the tab

--- a/mobile/android/tests/browser/robocop/robocop.ini
+++ b/mobile/android/tests/browser/robocop/robocop.ini
@@ -73,16 +73,17 @@ disabled=see bug 757475
 skip-if = android_version == "18"
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSearchHistoryProvider.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSearchSuggestions.java]
 # disabled on 4.3, bug 1145867
 skip-if = android_version == "18"
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSessionFilePreservation.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSessionOOMSave.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSessionOOMRestore.java]
+[src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSessionPrivateBrowsing.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSettingsPages.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testShareLink.java]
 disabled=see bug 915897
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testThumbnails.java]
 disabled=see bug 813107
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testViewPageSource.java]
 [src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testVkbOverlap.java]
 disabled=see bug 907274

--- a/mobile/android/tests/browser/robocop/src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/components/AppMenuComponent.java
+++ b/mobile/android/tests/browser/robocop/src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/components/AppMenuComponent.java
@@ -35,16 +35,17 @@ import com.robotium.solo.Solo;
  * A class representing any interactions that take place on the app menu.
  */
 public class AppMenuComponent extends BaseComponent {
     private static final int MAX_WAITTIME_FOR_MENU_UPDATE_IN_MS = 7500;
 
     public enum MenuItem {
         FORWARD(R.string.forward),
         NEW_TAB(R.string.new_tab),
+        NEW_PRIVATE_TAB(R.string.new_private_tab),
         PAGE(R.string.page),
         RELOAD(R.string.reload);
 
         private final int resourceID;
         private String stringResource;
 
         MenuItem(final int resourceID) {
             this.resourceID = resourceID;

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mobile/android/tests/browser/robocop/src/org/mozilla/gecko/tests/testSessionPrivateBrowsing.java
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+package org.mozilla.gecko.tests;
+
+import org.mozilla.gecko.Actions;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.GeckoApp;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.Tabs;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.tests.helpers.GeckoHelper;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.util.BundleEventListener;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.util.EventCallback;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.util.GeckoBundle;
+
+public class testSessionPrivateBrowsing extends UITest implements BundleEventListener {
+    private static final String PRIVATE_TABS_EVENT = "PrivateBrowsing:Data";
+    private static final String FLUSH_TABS_EVENT = "Session:FlushTabs";
+
+    private volatile TestStage mTestStage;
+    private boolean mWait = true;
+
+    public void testSessionPrivateBrowsing() {
+        GeckoHelper.blockForDelayedStartup();
+
+        // Attempt to get the session store into a known idle state by flushing any possibly
+        // still pending writes.
+        runTestCycle(TestStage.SETUP);
+
+        // Flushing with no pending writes should yield a "no change" message.
+        runTestCycle(TestStage.NO_CHANGE);
+
+        // Flushing with a pending write, but no private tabs open, should yield "null" private
+        // tab data.
+        openNewTab(false);
+        runTestCycle(TestStage.NO_PRIVATE_TABS);
+
+        // After opening a private tab, the private tabs session string we receive shouldn't be
+        // emtpy anymore.
+        openNewTab(true);
+        runTestCycle(TestStage.SOME_PRIVATE_TABS);
+    }
+
+    private void openNewTab(final boolean privateTab) {
+        // WaitHelper#waitForPageLoad does some additional checks which we don't require, so in
+        // order to speed things up (see below), we do our own custom waiting to make sure the
+        // new tab has been opened in Gecko as well.
+        Actions.EventExpecter pageLoad =
+                getActions().expectGlobalEvent(Actions.EventType.UI, "Content:DOMTitleChanged");
+        // We only have a limited window of time in which we can manually flush the pending session
+        // store writes before they are written out automatically. Opening new tabs the Robocop way
+        // by actually clicking the corresponding menu item is currently rather slow, so we bypass
+        // this and open them directly.
+        if (privateTab) {
+            Tabs.getInstance().addPrivateTab();
+        } else {
+            Tabs.getInstance().addTab();
+        }
+        pageLoad.blockForEvent();
+        pageLoad.unregisterListener();
+    }
+
+    private void runTestCycle(final TestStage testStage) {
+        mTestStage = testStage;
+        ((GeckoApp) getActivity()).getAppEventDispatcher()
+                .registerGeckoThreadListener(this, PRIVATE_TABS_EVENT);
+        getActions().sendGlobalEvent(FLUSH_TABS_EVENT, null);
+        synchronized (this) {
+            while (mWait) {
+                try {
+                    wait();
+                } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
+            }
+            mWait = true;
+        }
+    }
+
+
+    @Override
+    public void handleMessage(String event, GeckoBundle message, EventCallback callback) {
+        mAsserter.is(event, PRIVATE_TABS_EVENT, "received " + PRIVATE_TABS_EVENT + " event");
+
+        switch (mTestStage) {
+            case NO_CHANGE:
+                getAsserter().ok(message.getBoolean("noChange"),
+                        "got expected no change event", null);
+                break;
+
+            case NO_PRIVATE_TABS:
+                getAsserter().ok(!message.containsKey("noChange"),
+                        "didn't get no change event", null);
+                getAsserter().ok(message.getString("session") == null,
+                        "got empty private tabs data",null);
+                break;
+
+            case SOME_PRIVATE_TABS:
+                getAsserter().ok(message.getString("session") != null,
+                        "got some private tabs data",null);
+                break;
+        }
+
+        ((GeckoApp) getActivity()).getAppEventDispatcher()
+                .unregisterGeckoThreadListener(this, PRIVATE_TABS_EVENT);
+        synchronized (this) {
+            mWait = false;
+            notifyAll();
+        }
+    }
+
+    private enum TestStage {
+        SETUP,
+        NO_CHANGE,
+        NO_PRIVATE_TABS,
+        SOME_PRIVATE_TABS,
+    }
+}