You've probably used incognito mode, for example, to log into several accounts at once. mail accounts or view photos of cats in the workplace. Now that your online activities are being vigilantly monitored by search and advertising bots, incognito mode seems like a very tempting option. But it doesn't really provide privacy.
How is incognito mode different from regular mode?
In incognito mode:
- Browsing history is not recorded;
- Search queries are not saved;
- Files are not saved;
- New passwords are not recorded;
- Temporary files and cached website content are not saved;
- Data is not recorded in forms on websites.
As you can see, the list is long. But incognito mode only protects a small part of your data. Google honestly warns about this in their browsers. Chrome users receive a notification when they launch Incognito Mode.
When you open a tab in incognito mode, you will see a corresponding warning. What we're trying to get across is that your activity, even in private mode, is still visible on the sites you visit, and may be visible to your employer, your school, and of course, your Internet Service Provider.
Darin Fisher, Vice President of Chrome Engineering
Firefox also displays a disclaimer.
Private browsing mode does not make you anonymous on the Internet. Your ISP, employer, or the websites themselves may track which pages you visit. Also, private browsing mode does not protect you from keyloggers or spyware, which can be installed on your computer.
Mozilla Support
What provides true privacy
By and large, all these search engine tricks aimed at targeting advertising do not particularly interfere with users. However, in some cases, getting rid of such annoying attention can be useful.
For example, you intend to purchase a gift for your wife and are looking for suitable options in online stores in incognito mode. After some time, the wife launches the browser in normal mode and sees a bunch of advertisements with offers to buy smartphones and jewelry. This is annoying and can ruin the surprise.
There are several ways to avoid this.
VPN
A virtual private network hides your IP address and replaces it with the remote IP address. This will make it more difficult for advertising platforms to associate your IP address with your browser.
Tor
This is an anonymous network that passes your traffic through several random hosts before connecting you to the final server. You can surf through Tor at least occasionally, because the speed is not very impressive. But the privacy measures in this browser are excellent.
Ghostery
There are several that make it difficult for advertising platforms to identify browsers. One of the best is Ghostery. It blocks most tracking trackers on pages without affecting surfing speed in any way.
Do you live a hectic online life? Do you know that there is a spy next to you? No, you don’t need to look around: he doesn’t stand behind you and doesn’t look over his shoulder at the screen. It's right in front of your face. And this is your browser.
Web browsers remember and store information about all our online activities. Do we always remember that we need to clear history, cache and cookies after visiting “secret” sites, when we access them, for example, from someone else’s PC? I prefer not to bother my head with this, but to make the browser “forget” about my online adventures for a while. How exactly? Meet: incognito mode.
Incognito mode in browsers: how to hide traces of network activity
Internet Explorer
While surfing the web incognito Internet Explorer, like all other browsers, does not save:
- history search queries;
- temporary files;
- information about pages viewed;
- proxy data (information about Internet access through intermediate network nodes);
- data entered into forms (logins, passwords, addresses, etc.);
- cache and cookies.
It also disables all plugins and extensions, but allows you to create bookmarks, change settings and download files from the Internet. Bookmarks, settings and downloads are not deleted after switching to normal viewing mode.
In Internet Explorer, incognito mode is called " InPrivate" To activate it, go to the menu “ Safety" and click " Browsing InPrivate" Or simply press the combination Shift+Ctrl+P.
With this action we will open a private browsing window. Here's what it looks like in Internet Explorer 11:
To return to normal mode and cover up traces of recent network activity, simply close InPrivate and restart your web browser.
Microsoft Edge
IN Microsoft Edge The “invisibility cap” is located in the main menu, which is hidden behind a button with an ellipsis. As you guessed, it's called " New InPrivate window».
In Edge, it is not much different from Internet Explorer and has exactly the same functions. It looks like this:
Opera
Creating private windows in Opera is started by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N or called from the main menu.
When surfing the network in this mode, each tab is marked with an icon in the form of a “Do not disturb” sign and the inscription “Private browsing”. It looks like this:
To log out and erase traces of everything you did online, just close your browser.
Google Chrome
Incognito in Google Chrome is also activated by pressing the hot keys Ctrl+Shift+N or through the main menu.
The private page in this browser is marked with the image of a “spy” - a little man in dark glasses and a hat in the upper left corner.
After you've done your work, again don't forget to close the window. While it is open or minimized on the taskbar, the cache, cookies and temporary files of your “top secret” sites are stored in the Google Chrome service folders. If you leave your computer unattended, interested ill-wishers may take possession of it.
Yandex.Browser
Confidentiality is what most modern Internet users strive for. And this is not at all surprising, because many of them have to share a PC/laptop with relatives, colleagues or friends.
Google became concerned about the issue of privacy more than five years ago. That's when it appeared in their browser interesting feature allowing you to surf the Internet!
What is incognito mode?
Incognito mode is one of the many features built into the browser that allows users to keep their browsing history private.
In other words, this is a mode of browsing websites in which no session data remains on the device used to access the Internet. When the user turns it on, the browser automatically stops recording data downloaded by portals and the history of visits, and also does not save the list of programs, pictures and other files downloaded by the user, while the files themselves and added bookmarks are saved.
“Incognito” does not hide information from the sites visited by the user and his provider!
It is worth noting that the user can be in normal and anonymous mode at the same time, and only the data of those web resources that were opened in the usual way will be saved.
How to enable incognito in Chrome
To open a new anonymous tab you need to:
- Click on the “three dots” icon located in the upper right corner of the browser.
- Click on the inscription “New window in incognito mode.”
- A new window should appear in front of you, warning you about changing the mode.
You can also switch to anonymous mode by simultaneously pressing the “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “N” keys.
How to disable incognito mode in Chrome
To exit incognito, just close the browser window and launch it again.
How to view incognito history in Chrome
Recording your browsing history in incognito mode can only be enabled using third-party extensions from the Chrome online store.
The most popular representative of such extensions is “Off The Record History”.
1. After installing the extension, you must allow its use in incognito mode on the settings page, otherwise the history will not be saved.
2. The history of visits to the current session will be saved directly in the extension and will be available by clicking on its icon in the control panel.
It is impossible to view your browsing history after the incognito window is closed.
The Safari browser has many hidden functions. But some of them are available on the very first browser screen.
This is, for example, the ability to view pages in Private access . In some cases, it can actually be useful, for example, if you are looking for a gift for a loved one, but don’t want him to somehow find it later.
True, if you were not looking for information in this mode, then you can view the history. Fortunately, you can remove it yourself. We'll tell you how to do this.
How to use Private Browsing
Step 1. Click the open tabs button in the bottom right corner of Safari.
Step 2. Click the Private button in the lower left corner of the screen. The interface will change to dark gray.
Step 3. Tap the + icon to create a new tab.
In this mode, the history of search queries is not saved.
How to Delete Search History in Safari
In this case, there are two ways to clear your web surfing history. Note that history deleted on one device will not be displayed on all others connected to iCloud.
Method 1
Step 1. Tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen.
Step 2. Go to the section with the clock icon, it is stored there full story browser.
Step 3. To delete individual pages, swipe from right to left and tap Delete. If you want to delete everything, either for a certain period (hour, today, today and yesterday, all time), click Clear and select the desired item.
Method 2
The second method allows you to clear all history, cookies and website data on this device. Moreover, regardless of when the sites were opened.
Step 1. Go to section Settings -> Safari.
Step 2. At the bottom of the list, click on the button Clear history and data.
Please note that these methods will only help you hide safely from strangers within your immediate vicinity.
If you need to be anonymous on the Internet, .
The whole point of using incognito mode in Chrome is to leave no trace of the user's internet activity. No, perhaps to say too loudly, no traces remain on local computer, but your Internet provider, as well as site administrators, information about visits to their resources will still be available. However, in some cases, you may need to temporarily save your browsing history in incognito mode on your local PC.
A free extension called . After installing it on the panel Chrome tools you will see a gray button icon. And although the add-on is already enabled by default, you need to go to the extensions section and check the box "Allow use in incognito mode" , otherwise nothing will work.
Once you do this, the Off The Record History icon will appear in the window opened in incognito mode. After this, all data about site visits will be saved, but not in the general log chrome://history, but in a separate log of the extension itself.
You can view the list of visited sites only in an incognito window, for which you should click on the extension icon. A panel will appear, divided into two columns: "Recently closed" And "Full history". The first contains records about already closed sites, and the second - both closed ones and those whose tabs are in this moment active.
There is a special option on the add-on panel to clear history. trash button. Click it and all history will be deleted. You can also simply close what is open in incognito mode Chrome window. The result will be the same, because Off The Record History saves browsing history only for one session . Once the user exits the browser, all entries are automatically deleted.