what is incognito

What is Incognito Mode and How Does It Work with a VPN to Ensure Your 100% Security and Privacy Online?

A web browser is access to the Internet world and a leading platform where Internet users’ most communications with the Internet take place. Incognito, as a private browsing mode, is a handy way to make you stay almost secure and private on the Internet. However, Incoginito has limitations since it fails to protect your activities on the applications in your device and its protections only works on the Chrome browser. If you use another web browser, your online activities won’t be well protected.

The optimal solution is to combine Incognito mode and a VPN so that any of protection for your online activities won’t be missed out.

What is Incognito Mode and How Secure and Private is It?

Incognito mode is a private browsing session on the Google Chrome browser. Up to now, however, incognito has become a common term for private browsing feature each browser has. For example, the “incognito” mode of Firefox is called Private Window.

incognito screen shot

It’s quite clear to see how secure and private Incognito mode is at the welcoming page of Incognito window.

The information Chrome Incognito mode won’t save includes:

  • Your Browsing History
  • Cookies and Site Data
  • Information Entered in Forms

However, there’s also a hint reminding you that your activity might still be visible to the following parties:

  • Websites You Visit
  • Your Employer or School
  • Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

As Internet users go Incognito on Chrome, they are able to privately browse and all their online activities won’t be seen by others who use the same device. Nevertheless, your downloads and bookmarks you create on the browser will possibly be saved on your website server and your browsing activities will possibly be seen by your ISP that usually tracks your online activities or throttle your bandwidth or your employer or school that monitors each of your clicked access to the Internet to stop company data from breach or torrenting.

How does Incognito Mode Work to Keep You Partial Secure and Private?

Then how does Incognito mode work to protect your online privacy? We’ll see.

As you first open a new incognito window, you’re actually creating a new private browsing tab. After that, all the incognito windows you open will be a session of private browsing and privacy mode. As you close all incognito windows, private browsing will come to an end.

With incognito mode on, all your browsing history, cookies and site data, and all the information you enter on the Internet won’t be saved on the device you’re using. It means that all your online activities won’t be stored in Chrome history so that other users won’t be able to see your online activities.

How to Go Incognito Mode on Computers, Android, and iOS Devices?

Although incognito has become a common term for all private browsing modes on browsers, the incognito mode mentioned in this article still indicates the incognito mode on Chrome. Chrome incognito mode can be set on computers, phones, and tablets.

How to Go Incognito Mode on Computers

First, open Chrome on your PC or laptop.

Second, click the three dots at the upper right corner and select New Incognito Window.

Third, a new window appears with the incognito logo seen. You can enter your website on this window to browse privately.

As you close all Incognito windows, Incognito mode will end.

How to Go Incognito Mode on Android

First, open the Chrome app on your Android phone or tablet.

Second, to the right of the address bar, tap the three dots at the right upper corner and select the New Incognito tab.

Third, a new window appears with the incognito logo seen. You can enter your website on this window to browse privately.

As you close all Incognito tabs, Incognito mode will end.

How to Go Incognito Mode on iPhone or iPad?

First, open the Chrome app on your iPhone or iPad.

Then, tap More to select New Incognito Tab to enter a private browsing session.

As you close all Incognito tabs, Incognito mode will end.

Is Incognito Mode Secure and Private?

Yes, but partially.

what is incognito

Incognito mode is a privacy mode of online browsing and just like what’s introduced in the earlier part, it doesn’t save your browsing history with the mode on. To that extent, it’s secure and private.

However, it isn’t a cure-all.

Incognito mode just stops Chrome from saving your browsing activity to your local history. After all, the Internet doesn’t refer to a browser only while Incognito mode only works within the Chrome range.

Your online activity, like your geological location, might still be visible to:

  • Websites you visit, including the ads and resources used on them
  • Websites you sign in to
  • Your employer, school, or whoever runs the network you’re using
  • Your Internet Service Provider, or ISP
  • Search engine

In addition, Chrome won’t store the files you download while browsing in private. As a result, they are still saved to your Downloads folder, even after you exit Incognito. Anyone that uses the device can go through and open them.

Is Incognito Mode a VPN?

Absolutely NO!

Although both Incognito mode and VPN are labeled as “security and privacy”, they are different stories.

Incognito Mode is only limited within Chrome while a VPN works on ALL Internet Access.

As Chrome is used for web surfing with Incognito turned on, all the browsing activities won’t be tracked by Chrome alone, but they are still accessible to ISPs, advertisers, or even Internet hackers. In one word, Incognito mode is only beneficial for your online security and privacy protection when the same device is used by multiple people.

A VPN, on the other hand, can be used to protect the whole Internet and it works on all devices, including computers, phones, tablets, and even routers. The moment you have the first word with the Internet, you will be well protected.

Incognito mode keeps no log of browsing activities on Chrome while a VPN keeps no log of everything.

As Incognito mode is turned on, all the browsing activities won’t be tracked or saved by Google Chrome. As another browser or application is used for web surfing, it won’t work. However, as a VPN is used, an encrypted end-to-end tunnel is provided so that all the data transmission goes through it with no one else’s knowledge. Therefore, a VPN protects all.

However, some VPNs are complained about leaking users’ data recently. How scary! Therefore, a really secure VPN should be used like a decentralized VPN that is open source and based on multiple nodes on the Internet instead of the single server provided by the VPN service provider.

decentralized vs centralized 1200

Incognito mode still possibly leaks IP address while a VPN perfectly hides it.

The essential reason why Incognito mode still leaks data even within the range of Chrome lies in its incapability to hide users’ IP addresses.

An IP address indicates so much information about an individual that it is a perfect hint along which the Internet users’ identity can be well tracked, including their geological location, age, home address, browsing likes and habits, and even their online shopping information.

A VPN is able to mask users’ IP address so that it looks like they are visiting the Internet from any place. Moreover, a VPN is capable of breaking Internet restrictions and bypass censorship, which severely goes beyond Incognito’s reach.

That’s also why a VPN is mostly used for streaming and gaming while Incognito can never do that.


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