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jeffinRTP t1_is5u26f wrote

I use it for how I think it was designed to not leave the evidence on my machine of certain sites I visit.

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raichiha t1_is5zp15 wrote

I don’t recall incognito mode ever being advertising as performing any functions outside of not collecting browser history and cookies. What do these people even think its supposed to do anyway? Mask their IP address when buying black market drugs and firearms online or something?

It’s literally intended so you can like, watch porn without your kids seeing it in the recents tab and I believe thats pretty much it

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Antice t1_is676rv wrote

Its good for testing web pages during development. I can have 2 tabs logged in as separate users for instance.

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Riccars t1_is6dowt wrote

Exactly one for my Reddit account and one for my NSFW reddit account.

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Bad_Name_Generator t1_is7238m wrote

Reddit also have an incognito mode (or at least, it has one on Android).

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phsics t1_is6xjwl wrote

Firefox containers serve this purpose in a more elegant way imo

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2Punx2Furious t1_is7o9bi wrote

At my job we mostly work on Chrome, but personally, I use Firefox, but I've never heard of these containers.

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Grade_Zero t1_is7urlw wrote

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/

It's amazing. Need to be logged in to 10 different accounts at once? Easy

There's even another extension that automatically creates a new container every time you open a new tab if you want

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2Punx2Furious t1_is9erfm wrote

Ah it's an extension, I thought it was a native feature.

Good to know, thanks.

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[deleted] t1_is9fl5t wrote

[deleted]

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2Punx2Furious t1_is9fosr wrote

Didn't even see that. No, I use extensions on both Chrome and Firefox. I just thought it was native, I wasn't shitting on extensions.

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PleasantWay7 t1_is875oj wrote

Doesn’t Chrome share cookies across all incognito windows? Safari is the one that doesn’t.

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ProgrammedVictory t1_isez4y7 wrote

Yes, very annoying. I just create a separate chrome user profile for each of my personalities.

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ironichaos t1_is8fv4k wrote

Use Firefox and their cookie container plugin. I can log into as many aws accounts as I want. Total game changer but I haven’t found a similar one for chrome yet.

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pottybrains t1_is6qh3a wrote

When you open a new incognito tab it literally tells you that it isn't a l33t haxx0r spy tool, and just wont save your browsing history and keep you logged into accounts. As you said, it pretty much solely for not having to clear your browser history after watching porn, or googling particularly embarrasing medical questions.

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EtherCJ t1_is6fkbc wrote

Did you even watch the commercials for it? It's to buy gifts for your spouse without her knowing .. literally no other reason!

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Aemonn9 t1_is6umrw wrote

There were commercials for Incognito Mode? Thank god for adblock.

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jeffinRTP t1_is7dhe1 wrote

The commercials I've seen were saying you can use it to hide your fetish porn. 🤔😎🤗

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pressedbread t1_is97bi3 wrote

Only for the sick fucks whose fetish is to surprise their spouse with classy gifts.

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PuckSR t1_is84gmm wrote

It does two things: it starts a new window without history AND it creates a new browser that is missing all cookies, settings, etc from your normal session.

This has made the feature incredibly useful for people who work with webpages. If I am ever having a problem with a webpage, I always open it in incognito

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Jim3535 t1_is89uiv wrote

It's for watching youtube videos that you don't want ruining your video feed.

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Occams_Razorburn t1_is88gqs wrote

i use it for watching youtube videos that i don’t want infiltrating my primary accounts algorithm

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erosram t1_isa9ubb wrote

Does it behave any different in desktop safari than it does in desktop chrome?

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Speffeddude t1_is65jyh wrote

And for using a friend's/work/laptop computer without leaving your login credentials behind.

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PhonePostingCrap t1_is6hbx2 wrote

Yea. It's just there so porn doesn't populate into my address bar lol.

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jeffinRTP t1_is7bsn8 wrote

And that's basically what it says when you select it just keeps things from being stored on your machine.

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TravisVZ t1_is63i9u wrote

I've got a chronic problem with leaving too many tabs open, so I'm routinely using Incognito windows so that they will clean themselves up every time I have to restart my browser.

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newworkaccount t1_is6oks5 wrote

You can set any browser to not reopen tabs when you start your browser, just so you know. No need to use incognito for that purpose.

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TravisVZ t1_is6p1to wrote

Yes I know, but I have a subset of tabs that I do want to reopen every time, e.g. Gmail, Reddit, Facebook, GitHub, etc. So I use a normal window for that, and then use an Incognito window (or 3, when the tabs start getting too crowded!) for the "transient" tabs.

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GE_999 t1_is7umaj wrote

I only use it to get around paywalls on news sites when my limit of articles has run out

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despitegirls t1_is6eoj8 wrote

I use it for sites I don't want to appear in my history in my main session. That's what it's for. It's not meant to hide activity per se, just not have that activity appear in your main session. It tells you what it does but people have their own beliefs as evidenced by those in this study.

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jeffinRTP t1_is7bwhn wrote

That's true maybe they should have named it something different than incognito.

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AngryAtTacos t1_is61zzl wrote

Just call it "Porn Mode" already

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winter_limelight t1_is6xf1s wrote

Second-hand story from someone who I believe was on the IE team many moons ago: the IE team called it 'one handed browsing mode'.

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S0M3D1CK t1_is6ymw1 wrote

It should be called “wife mode” for browsing anything you don’t want your wife to see.

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ZippyTheWonderSnail t1_is736qd wrote

I wish I knew more about how Google, Facebook, Amazon, TikTok and other Silicon Valley companies are spying on us. What I do know is that "Incognito Mode" doesn't hide anything from anyone outside your home.

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PowerLies t1_is623zq wrote

Doesn’t chrome explicitly warn that incognito doesn’t hide activity from ISPs?

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TravisVZ t1_is63a8c wrote

There's literally a full-page explanation of what Incognito Mode does and doesn't do. While it doesn't say "Google will still track your usage", it also doesn't say "Your usage won't be tracked", and is pretty explicit that it's intended to prevent other users of this device from seeing your history.

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semitones t1_is9gccq wrote

Based on it saying "your ISP may still track you" I thought that implied that Google wasn't tracking you in the browser. So it was misleading for n=1

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Justausername1234 t1_is790ia wrote

> Chrome won’t save the following information: Your browsing history Cookies and site data Information entered in forms

> Your activity might still be visible to: Websites you visit Your employer or school Your internet service provider

Short of literally having people retype the disclaimer before letting them use incognito mode, it seems pretty absurd to blame google when they clearly give you all the information necessary to know what it does and doesn't do.

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DAM1313 t1_is7a04w wrote

Right, but I think people get hung up on all the stuff that chrome doesn't gather, and miss the fact that Google has other ways of tracking you via search and ads. Their fingerprinting methodology is definitely robust enough to gather data about you in incognito and they don't say that they don't do that.

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Justausername1234 t1_is7akmt wrote

> Your activity might still be visible to: Websites you visit

Google.com is a website.

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DAM1313 t1_is7bk4n wrote

I'm not disputing that the information is readily available. I'm telling you that people don't think about it that way and probably also don't read what you're referencing

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2Punx2Furious t1_is7oe4d wrote

I'm guessing that people that complain about this don't understand or even read those warnings.

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HelloWorld_502 t1_is69ioi wrote

Incognito mode is a super useful tool to use a machine without creating a profile that will save passwords, cookies, history, etc. Say I sit down at my friends computer and I want to check my gmail, launch chrome in incognito mode, do my two step verification, and I'm good to go. When I close the incognito browser, everything about that session is gone. Even if you load up another incognito right after closing, 2FA must be completed again regardless of if you say to remember the browser.

It is also very useful for troubleshooting Chrome browser along with disabling extensions like: chrome --incognito --disable-extensions

If your really trying to be private on the internet, you must do a heck of a lot more than just manipulate settings in your browser.

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Zopieux t1_is7u8xk wrote

Good luck explaining that to technocrats and lawmakers.

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HelloWorld_502 t1_is7zmgn wrote

It’s just how the tool was meant to be used. Not a hard concept.

If you want to make your life private, it takes a lot more than checking a box. That’s the hard thing to explain.

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p1mrx t1_isb9ym4 wrote

You can also make Chrome use a SOCKS5 proxy just for incognito mode (tunneled over WireGuard or SSH), to hide the traffic from your local ISP.

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Hrmbee OP t1_is5rr9r wrote

>Employees reportedly cracked jokes about the feature’s inept, and potentially misleading privacy protections in recent years, with one marketing officer reportedly directly emailing CEO Sundar Pichai, basically begging him to make the product actually live up to its name according to recent court documents viewed by Bloomberg. Those jokes and internal criticism comes amid multiple lawsuits questioning Google transparency around the feature. > >In one email sent to Pichai, Google marketing chief Lorraine Twohill reportedly warned that the current customer confusion around Incognito mode was forcing the company to dance around using fuzzy and hedging language that ultimately risked degrading consumer trust. > >“Make Incognito Mode truly private,” she wrote in the email. It’s worth noting that Twohill sent that email after multiple users filed a multi-billion dollar class action privacy lawsuit against Google for allegedly tracking users while using Incognito. Those users claim that supposedly surreptitious tracking amounts to privacy violations. The judge presiding over the lawsuit last week refused to let plaintiffs question Pichai in pre-trial proceedings despite the CEO’s connections in Google Chrome’s development and subsequent concerned emails regarding Incognito. > >Let’s back up for a second. For some clarity, Google Chrome’s so-called Incognito browsing hides your search history from other people using your device but doesn’t actually prevent Google or its advertiser friends from logging and profiting off your search history. Critics of Incognito, like the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, and more recently Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argue Google’s branding and messaging around Incognito makes it appear much more privacy preserving than it actually is. Paxton, in particular, alleges the company’s ​​representations about Incognito mode are “false, deceptive, and misleading.” > >... > >“We need to stop calling it Incognito and stop using a Spy Guy icon,” one engineer said in a 2018 chat. The engineer reportedly cited publicly available research showing users didn’t really understand how the feature worked. Another employee flippantly responded by posting a wiki to the page for “Guy Incognito” from The Simpsons, who, other than a small mustache, looks identical to Homer Simpson. That low effort disguise, according to the employee, “accurately conveys the level of privacy it [Incognito] provides.”

One thing that tech companies like Google seem to get wrong all the time is the bombastic language they use in their branding and marketing attempts. The challenge here is that the public will take these terms at face value, not understand the fine print, and then suffer the consequences of something that is notably different than what was promised. In addition to 'Incognito Mode' here, another recent offender would be Tesla's 'Autopilot' and 'Full Self Driving'.

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m3003 t1_is5scu9 wrote

>The challenge here is that the public will take these terms at face value

Bruh, the public who doesn't have a money grubbing lawyer behind them, knows this is just to hide your porn trail from mom/wife...

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newworkaccount t1_is6ps2z wrote

"Full Self Driving" is much more egregious, being a very direct description for a very expensive feature that is completely untrue, and always has been.That sort of description should arguably be illegal, being completely false in a way that "Incognito Mode" isn't.

Sure, if you're spending $$$ on a Tesla, you should read the fine print. But I think it's completely undesirable for us to allow obviously false names to be used for products, regardless of whether consumers ought to read the fine print.

(I also don't think purchases should be an IQ test, as though being born slow should allow you to be taken advantage of.)

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GetInZeWagen t1_is6q5i3 wrote

Careful I got torn apart and accused of being paid (by all of their competitors? Or something?) For making such a claim about Tesla's "autopilot" on reddit lol

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After_Programmer_231 t1_is63r1z wrote

It was just to prevent your history from being clogged up with weird porn. Let's be honest.

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2MegaWhats t1_is6f3ng wrote

It has never been advertised as a way to protect you from tracking, you can still be tracked as long as the browser window is open. It's basically the equivalent of clearing your cookies, cache, and history when you close your browser. It's basically a porn mode, so a nosy person using your computer can't just dig through your browser history.

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BalouCurie t1_is706cl wrote

But Guy Incognito was a different person.

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locheness4 t1_is616tm wrote

I just use it cause so many websites store cookies which somehow makes the user experience worse over time so it’s much better to use Incognito for that reason (and that reason only). Who uses chrome for privacy anymore?

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loztriforce t1_is6nel0 wrote

Hasn’t incognito mode had a disclaimer on it since like forever noting its limitations?

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SarahSplatz t1_is7afdl wrote

Yep, people just can't be bothered to read anything anymore.

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OrangeNova t1_is6qrzj wrote

I use it to log into one off other accounts where it's a pain to log out of my main account.

That's literally the only usecase I have for it.

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Sylanthra t1_is707jx wrote

As a developer it is great to be able to sign in as different users to the same site.

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therearenoemailsleft t1_is67ott wrote

I don't care what they call it lol they're always gonna keep a nice Lil file of everything and anything on you.

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SuperToxin t1_is739ng wrote

It’s literally only to stop your history to be saved. That’s it.

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shadowheart1 t1_is7c50y wrote

I use incognito when I want to search something that I don't want to show up later in search suggestions. That's literally the only function.

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OriginalMrMuchacho t1_is8g4pz wrote

Ummm… that’s strange since Guy Incognito is actually not Homer in disguise but is a separate individual. Comparison makes no sense.

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SarahSplatz t1_is79x3o wrote

Why do people think incognito mode is some do-it-all privacy browser? It was *never* claimed to be. Literally the moment you open an incognito window it tells you *right in the middle of the screen* what is *does* and what it *doesn't* do. If someone is using incognito to hide their browsing from their isp or whatever they're just an idiot.

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neutrilreddit t1_is7ohvo wrote

>Google Chrome’s so-called Incognito browsing hides your search history from other people using your device but doesn’t actually prevent Google or its advertiser friends from logging and profiting off your search history.

This is troubling. wtf does this mean?

So if I open Chrome Incognito to briefly search for "leather couches" on Bing.com, and then restart the entire browser, will Google and its advertisers start showing me ads of leather couches everywhere?

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contantofaz t1_is7qlkv wrote

Information can be collected server side and track you across browser windows. Nowadays if I want a little more peace of mind I may open a link on a different browser's Incognito mode since I think that could add a little bit more indirection to confuse some in-browser tracking. I don't trust Google itself to keep things clean.

I have 4 browsers installed I can use: Chrome, Brave, Opera and Edge. Brave includes the Tor protocol that can be useful when accessing sites that have region restrictions or that have content controlled by IP or somesuch. Tor adds an indirection through someone else's IP. But I think Tor is mostly useful for static content, so video wouldn't be the priority in terms of performance.

If you want to be coy you could perhaps try to install a VPN on a browser you seldom use and use that for some of your sensitive connections.

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cole_braell t1_is7rthk wrote

But seriously, what’s the difference between Guest mode and Incognito mode?

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selectiveyellow t1_is80k1l wrote

It's useful for viewing conservative media without getting spammed by Pordan Jeterson memes.

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Leiryn t1_is8je5t wrote

This is because everyone seems to fundamentally misunderstand what incognito mode actually is

All it does is not store a history of what you did while using the browser on your local machine. Nothing more, sites will still track you, you just don't keep the local history, cookies, etc

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patriot2024 t1_is6b626 wrote

It's meant to provide comfort to those who don't know or don't care.

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