Private browsing provides some protection against cookie-based tracking. Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Private browsing can help cover your internet tracks by automatically deleting your browsing history and cookies when you close the browser. In addition, private browsing is an easy way to log out of websites when borrowing someone else’s device – so long as you remember to close the window when you are done.
We found that people often used private browsing to visit websites or conduct searches that they did not want other users of their device to see, such as those that might be embarrassing or related to a surprise gift. Private browsing is actually pretty effective for this purpose. Most study participants wanted to protect their browsing activities or personal data from other users of their devices. We conducted a research study in which we identified reasons people use private browsing mode. Notably, private browsing mode does not prevent websites from learning your internet address, and it does not prevent your employer, school or internet service provider from seeing your web activities by tracking your IP address. However, if you bookmark a site or download a file while using private browsing mode, the bookmarks and file will remain on your system.Īlthough some browsers, including Safari and Firefox, offer some additional protection against web trackers, private browsing mode does not guarantee that your web activities cannot be linked back to you or your device. When you close your private browsing window, the slate is wiped clean again and the browsing history and cookies from that private browsing session are deleted.
While the exact implementation varies from browser to browser, what private browsing modes have in common is that once you close your private browsing window, your browser no longer stores the websites you visited, cookies, user names, passwords and information from forms you filled out during that private browsing session.Įssentially, each time you open a new private browsing window you are given a “clean slate” in the form of a brand new browser window that has not stored any browsing history or cookies. In fact, a recent lawsuit against Google alleges that internet users are not getting the privacy protection they expect when using Chrome’s Incognito mode. Other studies conducted by the Pew Research Center and the privacy-protective search engine company DuckDuckGo have similar findings.
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