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Decoded

Incognito doesn't make you invisible

Three people can still see your tab.

Who can still see you

  • The website

    Everything you do on it, especially if you log in.

  • Whoever runs the Wi-Fi

    School, office, café. They can see which sites you visit.

  • Your internet provider

    Same: which sites. HTTPS hides what's on the page, not where you went.

  1. 1

    What it actually hides.

    Your history, cookies, site data and form entries, from other people using the same device, once you close every Incognito window. Downloads and bookmarks stay.

  2. 2

    Not a cloak. A fake mustache.

    It stops your device remembering. It does nothing to stop the internet seeing you.

2024

Google agreed to delete billions of records.

Settling the Brown v. Google lawsuit, Google agreed to destroy billions of data records collected from private browsing.

Use it for gifts, not for hiding.

Computer Networks notebook →

Sources

  • Google Chrome Help, “How Incognito mode works”
  • Brown v. Google LLC settlement (N.D. Cal., 2024)

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