We are in the Internet age. Everyone can connect to everyone else at the click of a button. Vast amounts of information flow through the Internet every single day! What does this mean for your privacy?
In earlier simpler times, one would trust their friends to keep their secrets. And rumors were not easy to circulate. But now we have not a couple but thousands of friends on Facebook. And wherever on the Internet you go, you leave a digital footprint!
So how can you get your privacy back? Incognito Mode is the answer.
Wondering what that is? Let’s find out!
What is the Incognito Mode?
When we are browsing the internet from a public PC or computer, the machine keeps track of our internet histories. The sites we visit, everything is recorded in there.
Along with that sites employ something that is popularly known as cookies. Now don’t mistake them for the delicious chocolate chip ones we have for dessert!
These cookies are much more sinister than those tasty treats. While most of the time they just provide the admin of site information about your activities on the site, sometimes, things can get worse, much worse.
Rogue cookies are common. They are like tiny spying bots that live on your computer and tell their host website everything about your browsing habits.
Even if you have disabled cookies, there is still your internet history to take care of! Anybody can go through that and get a good deal of personal info about you.
Do these revelations scare you? They sure do scare me! That’s why we have brought to you today an article on how to use Incognito Mode on your browser.
We care deeply about the privacy of our readers; hence we also made an article on how to best stay secure when you’re on the internet by using proxy sites. You can learn all about that and get a list of 100 of the best sites for anonymous web browsing by clicking on this link.
How Does Incognito Mode work?
They indeed are watching you! But today we will see how we can evade their eyes and enjoy private browsing using Incognito Mode. Our preferred browser of choice is Chrome although it remains the same for almost all other browsers!
But before we dive in let’s get the facts straight about what Incognito mode can and cannot protect you from!
Private browsing doesn’t mean that you’re impervious in the eyes of the law. So don’t get any ideas of committing a crime while in Incognito Mode thinking the police can’t find you.
They can. If need be, they will get all the information they require from your Internet Service Provider(ISP) itself!
But we know our readers aren’t hardened criminals! You’re all here to know what the security risks are! So let’s take a look over them!
Risks
- First and foremost is the fact that it won’t matter if you’re using Incognito Mode or not if you log into Google or any other one of your accounts. The moment you log in, they can detect and start tracking you.
- The browser cookies that are collected in an Incognito session although anonymous doesn’t guarantee private web browsing. So remember to close the browser window once you’re done browsing!
- Lastly, some sites use alternate methods of tracking your browsing statistics! They might still be able to glean information about you even when you’re in Incognito Mode.
Rewards
- Unless you like targeted ads or giving your private info away, Incognito Mode should be your best buddy while you’re engaged in private browsing.
- Sometimes many of us use multiple accounts on social media sites. Incognito mode can be used to surf two accounts on two separate incognito windows as cookies aren’t shared in Incognito sessions!
- You can access someone’s computer for a short while and use it without being afraid that the other person will snoop around on what sites you’ve been to.
But enough of the jibber jabber let’s get our private browsing boots on!
Steps to Launch Chrome in Incognito Mode By Default
This will need a command line modification, so follow the steps closely, it ain’t too hard I promise!
Step 1
We will need to get to the properties tab in Chrome. If you launch it from the taskbar or an icon, right click on it and navigate to properties!
If you have the icon pinned to the taskbar, you will have to right-click the Google Chrome icon and then right-click Google Chrome in the list, and select Properties.
Step 2
Add the phrase ” -incognito” (that’s a space character, a dash, and then the word incognito) to the end of the Target box. Click on OK once you’re done!
Google Chrome will now start in incognito mode when you launch it via this shortcut. If you want to use other shortcuts to launch the Chrome browser, you will need to modify them similarly as well!
And you’re done! Congratulations you’ve enabled incognito mode!
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This is the end of this article folks. Thanks for joining in and we will meet again with another such interesting article next time! Till then leave your feedback in the comments box below!
It does not work for me. It says that the name ‘C:\Program files\Google\Chrome\Application\Chrome.exe -incognito’ specified in the target box are not valid, make sure that the path and file name are correct.
Where did you install Chrome?