More and more people are worried about their privacy online these days, and honestly, it’s not only people who have something to hide.
If you’ve heard about incognito mode or have used it yourself, you might be wondering what happens or how much good it’s doing, so let’s dig into it.
Image Credit: iStock
According to Seth Schoen, a senior staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), it’s normal to be confused about what exactly browsing incognito protects.
“Ever singe private browsing was first created, users have been confused about the difference between protecting their online activity from other users of a shared device, from websites and ad networks, or from their internet service providers. Private browsing mode does well with the first of these, sometimes partly addresses the second, and has absolutely no effect on the third. The browser developers have tried to make this clear.”
Which is basically all to say that private does not equal anonymous.
Browsing incognito will not stop your internet service provider (ISP), your employer, or the government from knowing your activities, and the sites you frequent will still know your location, as well.
Many of us stay logged into Google as well, and they’ll be able to track your search patterns, regardless of your browser mode.
It also does not offer any protection against malware or viruses.
Image Credit: Google Chrome
Incognito mode can prevent local users from seeing your search history, though, and sometimes it will let you dodge annoying paywalls. It should also allow you to avoid more of those annoying algorithms that track your usage and then pop up site and marketing suggestions based on where you’ve been.
If you lend your laptop to a friend, they could use incognito mode to log into their social media accounts without having to log out of yours first.
People who are truly in need of online anonymity will need to do more than switch to private mode, says Schoen.
“The most accessible options are virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor, which which route your communications through intermediaries in ways that decrease what your iSP knows about what you’re doing online, and also decrease what websites you visit know about where you’re connecting from.”
He says even those are hit and miss, though.
“Both of these solutions also suffer from many myths and misconceptions. Although the technical details of who can see what are different from the private browsing mode situation, those details still exist and users should become familiar with them before relying on these privacy technologies for anonymity.”
Image Credit: iStock
I think the bottom line is that you should never feel comfortable that no one will be able to see what you’ve been browsing online, no matter the precautions you take.
Definitely seems like one of those “better safe than sorry” things, right?
