On “incognito” mode and how to surf the Internet anonymously?

If you are an average Internet user, at least once you must have come across one of thousands of variations of the popular meme in which the protagonist, i.e. the average Internet user, has one last wish on his deathbed – to delete his search history in the browser.

Whatever the reasons may be, the fact is that we are increasingly aware of the importance of our own virtual privacy. Millennials had no problem creating a profile on Facebook with their own name and surname and tagging themselves every time they had coffee, but new generations are much more cautious. Aside from all that, they despise Facebook (because their moms, dads and uncles are there), which is a topic for another text.

In an effort to “hinder large corporations to spy on us”, many of us almost instinctively enter “incognito”, i.e. anonymous mode of our favourite browser and sail the Internet with a sense of complete privacy.

How anonymous is incognito browsing the Internet – really?

Internet browsing is stored on:

• our computer

• visited pages

When a user goes to Facebook in private browsing mode, for example, no record of that visit will be stored on their device, but there will be a stored record of that visit in their Facebook account and Facebook ad analytics records.

Aware that online security threats are greater today than ever before, every third Internet user in the world searches it in private or anonymous, “incognito” mode. This keeps our online activities private, protects your login information, and prevents a third party from collecting our information. At least that is what we think…

We trust the “incognito” mode too much

“Whether you are browsing in private mode or not, your IP address must always be known to the recipient because when your browser sends a request to obtain data, the server receiving the request needs to know where it is sending that data – as Andrew Reifers, a professor at the University of Washington School of Computer Science explained to CNN.

According to a recent study conducted by Avast , 65 percent of the 10,000 users surveyed mistakenly believed that private internet browsing would anonymize their identity and disguise their browsing habits.

The expression “anonymous mode” leads many to the wrong conclusion. Even though you’ve opened an “incognito” search, your IP address is still visible to others, which means that your internet service provider, the web sites websites you have visited, your school, or your employer, can track your browsing activity.

VPN as a safer option

Google, for example, has been trying to create a safer environment for users for Chrome since 2019. They have published a long-term plan with the ultimate goal of the ‘Privacy Sandbox‘. These are standards that would allow advertising without the use of so-called tracking cookies, the adoption of which has been postponed by Google to 2024.

Furthermore, incognito mode does not protect you in the slightest from cyberattacks like phishing, malware, or viruses. To prevent this, a much better and more secure option is to use sophisticated tools that use encryption, such as virtual private networks or VPNs.

Private search, therefore, is intended to delete the local traces of the websites you visited, what you searched for and the online forms you submitted. It is also meant to hide your activity from other users who have access to the same computer you’re using, but that is really all it does.

Want better protection? Consider these options…

If you still want to use Chrome or another browser that does not offer meaningful tracking protection, we suggest using add-ons that can help protect your privacy:

• Decentraleyes (Chrome or Firefox)
• DuckDuckGo (for Chrome, but has its own browser)
• PrivacyBadger (Chrome or Firefox)
• uBlock Origin (Chrome)
• Avast Secure Browser

If you want to switch to a new browser that offers more protection, consider o Tor, Vivaldi, Waterfox, Brave or another alternative browser.

As with everything in life, there is no perfect security or privacy, but using one of these browsers or add-ons can at least make it difficult for other parties to track your web surfing.