That means doing a bit of secret internet shopping. To make it extra special, you want to order a huge cake and some colorful decorations for your home. The first is to hide a portion of your browsing history from other people who use the same device.įor example, let’s say you have a family computer, and you want to throw a surprise birthday party for one of your children. There are a few reasons why you might want to use a private browsing or incognito mode. When private browsing and incognito modes might be useful

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we can untangle when private browsing and incognito modes can be useful, and why they don’t grant you perfect anonymity. The session continues if you open additional windows, and only ends once they’re all closed.Īt the end of the session, most browsers including Chrome, Edge, and Safari will delete the following data from your device: When you open a private browsing window – via your browser’s toolbar, entering a keyboard shortcut, or selecting the correct option under ‘File’ – the session begins. What private browsing and incognito modes doĮvery browser is different, but incognito and private browsing is usually split into standalone sessions. Once you know their limitations, you can turn them on at a time that makes the most sense for you, and take other precautions to increase your privacy when necessary. If you want to take back control of your privacy, it’s important to know what these modes conceal, and who they conceal it from. Private browsing and incognito modes can be useful, but they don’t hide your activity from everyone. Why? Because the names of these features suggest they’ll turn you into a temporary ghost that can’t be tracked by any person, employer, advertiser, or government. In these situations, many people turn on their web browser’s built-in private browsing or incognito mode.

For example, you could be planning a surprise vacation for your best friend, seeking out information that’s meant to be banned in your country, or simply trying to minimize what advertisers know about you. There are countless reasons why you might want to keep the websites you’re visiting a secret.

Incognito brave browser