It's an ongoing battle --
companies large and small do their best to track our Web browsing
habits, while we do our best to keep our surfing as private as possible.
That's why it was so huge when the major browsers started rolling out
"private mode" browsing. Finally, we could click a mouse and become
invisible…right?
Not so fast.
Private mode, or "porn mode" as it's
sometimes derisively called, isn't really as private as you might think.
Depending on what you want to use privacy features for, it may be just
what you need, but it's not a cloak of Web invisibility, and if you
don't understand exactly what it does and doesn't do, you could find
yourself pretty embarrassed.
What Does Private Mode Do?
In a nutshell, Private Mode
prevents your browser from saving information locally. In every major
browser, private mode does two very cool things: clear cookies and wipe
your history and temporary files. The former keeps sites, advertisers
and other entities from tracking your browsing. The latter prevents,
say, your partner from finding out that you just spent the last two
hours looking for decorations for a surprise party. (Hey, you can use
private mode for good as well as evil!)
On the other hand, if you can't
hand off cookies, game sites might not track your scores and items you
buy may not stay in your shopping cart for later purchase. Disabling
your history means the next time you want to find a site, your address
bar won't autocomplete the URL for you. If you've enabled saved
passwords in your browser, that functionality won't apply to passwords
you enter during a private session, so make sure to remember any
passwords you create while incognito.
While you can individually control
how your browser handles cookies and history, Private Mode lets you
disable them on demand without having to change individual preferences.
Safari
Apple was the first to add a
"private mode," called Private Browsing, back in 2005. Private Browsing
is easy to find in the Safari menu. You'll be asked to confirm whether
you really want to browse privately. Strangely, Safari doesn't ask you
to confirm when you want to stop. While you browse privately, Safari
will accept temporary cookies so that you can log into sites or make
purchases, but when you disable Private Browsing those cookies are
tossed.
In addition to clearing cookies and
blocking history, Private Browsing also clears completed downloads from
Safari's Downloads window, and any search terms and URLs you type
disappear after you delete them from the Address Bar, so that the
Autocomplete function doesn't come back to haunt you. Safari will also
suspend syncing with iCloud for the duration of your session.
Internet Explorer
Microsoft calls its privacy mode
"InPrivate Browsing," and also sweeps clean all traces of your browsing
when you're done. Unlike Safari, which puts the entire browser into
privacy mode, IE enables you to open private tabs while browsing
normally in others. This opens up new uses for the feature, such as
signing into two Gmail accounts at the same time.
To open an InPrivate tab in Windows
10 within the Windows UI, choose "New InPrivate Tab" from the tab bar
"…" menu. Otherwise, choose "InPrivate Browsing" from the Tools menu.
If you are using Internet Explorer
9, right click on the Internet Explorer icon in the task bar and choose
"Start InPrivate Browsing."
Chrome
When you choose "New Incognito
Window" from the Chrome menu, you'll enter the feature Google calls
"incognito mode." Like other browsers, Chrome will accept cookies during
your incognito session but delete them when you close the windows. It
will also scrub your browser and search histories. Like IE, Chrome
allows you to open both incognito and regular windows at the same time,
so be careful that you don't inadvertently use a regular window for your
"private" browsing.
Another gotcha you might encounter
with Chrome is its connection to Google's Web properties: if you sign
into your Google account from an incognito window, your subsequent
searches will be saved in your online Google Web history. To completely
cover your search tracks, you must disable Web history in your Google
account.
Firefox
Private Browsing in Firefox
covers all the usual bases, leaving no cookies, cache or history when
you're done. Firefox also adds the option to always start in Private
Browsing mode in the browser's Preferences window. For per-session
privacy, choose "Start Private Browsing" from the "Tools" menu.
What Doesn't Private Mode Do?
The largest flaw in Private Mode
is that sites can still track your browsing using your computer's IP
address. What's more, so can your Internet Service Provider and your
employer's IT department. For that reason (among others), Private Mode
browsing isn't for surfing forbidden sites while on the job, for
example. Your own home's router can even betray you if you -- or someone
else -- set it to log usage.
Private Mode usually doesn't block
cookies entirely, so your web activities can be tracked during your
private session. Most browsers also offer a "do not track" preference,
although bear in mind that "do not track" works a lot like "do not call"
-- it relies on other parties to respect the request. Bottom line:
Don't trust that you are not being tracked.
If you've downloaded any files
during your private session, those files will remain on your computer
until you manually delete them. Same for any bookmarks you make while
you're incognito. Older browser versions didn't scrub Flash cookies, so
update to the latest version for the best privacy.
Finally, private mode won't protect
you from malicious software that spies on your browsing habits, and as
Google warns you when you open an incognito window, you'll still have to
look out for people standing behind you.
