Incognito Browsing

Some users resort to incognito mode for several reasons, perhaps the most prominent of which is the unwillingness to save browsing history on the computer, however, the question remains, does incognito mode give you real privacy? To answer this question? We have to understand first what incognito mode is, and how it works.

What is incognito mode?

Incognito mode is defined as a way to browse the internet using your web browser. If someone else is using the computer, other users will not be able to see your browser history and know where you have been, since at the end of an incognito session everything is deleted, even cookies.

There could be many reasons why you might want to use incognito mode. These reasons can be summed up as follows:

How private is incognito mode?

Here we are again to answer the big question about stealth mode and true privacy. Even though incognito mode hides your activities from people who share your PC, the rest of the world knows where you are online. Websites can still see your IP address, and your ISP will be able to track what you're doing. And if your computer has a virus, anyone who hacked your computer will be able to see your activity, as well as the intelligence agencies through their spying activities. In other words, you can't completely hide. No matter how you try to hide, someone sees you somehow, even your antivirus software tracks your activities to keep your computer safe from threats.

All that incognito mode does is change the behavior of your browser, and the way everything else works does not change. Usually, a web browser stores browsing history data. When you visit a website in regular browsing mode, the visit is stored in the browsing history, and cookies for that site are stored, and data that can be automatically completed, such as search terms, can be stored. Your browser also saves a history of downloads, search terms entered in the address bar, passwords, and some parts of web pages so that they are loaded quickly on subsequent visits.

If other people use the computer, they will be able to see the stored information in some way. As long as you can disable the browser's ability to collect data in the privacy settings, it should be easy to do so through incognito mode. However, other computers, routers, servers, and networks will not forget your browsing history. For example, if you browse Facebook incognito via a work network, network administrators will be able to see your browsing history.

As you can see, the effect of incognito mode does not extend beyond the computer you are using, as it is limited to preventing the browser from collecting browsing data within the browser only. So the only real way to hide your activities from everyone is to use VPN (Virtual Private Networks), the latter can hide your browsing history, and your IP address. To hide your activities, you can also take advantage of some browsers, as Tor is the most secure web browser.

How do you activate incognito mode?

After all, if she's satisfied with what incognito mode offers, activating it is simple. Now you only have to search for it in the browser, for example, for Chrome browser, there are three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen, and by clicking on them you can access the New Incognito Window option. To exit incognito mode, simply tap the three dots again to choose exit.

In the Firefox browser, you can click on the word (Firefox) Firefox in the upper left corner, then click on (New Private Window). In Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Edge browser, you can go to the Tools menu, and activate InPrivate Browsing. If you are using any other browser, incognito mode can be found in a similar way in the settings menu.

Browse with caution!

On the whole, with the capabilities that intelligence services and hackers have attained, you should be careful when you are in incognito mode. Finally, if you are looking for really safe browsing, you should use VPN services, or TOR browser.