We have all accepted our lot in life. The internet is mostly free to use once access is granted. Yes, we now understand that we pay with our data but that sounds like a fair trade to most. In an ideal world, we would not have our data harvested but hey, it beats shelling out cash money.
The deal is we use services like Google search, Gmail and even the Chrome browser for free whilst Google sells the data they collect on us to advertisers.
We have accepted the above but there are times when we do want a little privacy. There are some embarrassing things we would rather Google did not track and share with advertisers. It may be a medical thing or some random thing you’re curious about but do not want to forever be associated with.
Google recognises this and offers an Incognito mode on its Chrome browser. You turn that on either by hitting the three-dot menu in the top right corner and selecting ‘New Incognito window’ or by hitting Ctrl+Shift+N.
Chrome will tell you that you have gone incognito. The Incognito window comes in dark mode and a spy guy icon will reassure you that you’re browsing safely. You can then fire away your sensitive queries.
Incognito is not what it seems
That sounds good except Google was taken to court for misleading people about just how private the Incognito browsing sessions are. The lawsuit claims they are not really private at all saying that in reality, Google deceptively collects an array of personal data even when a user has engaged Incognito mode.
Of course, Google argues that they have been upfront about what Incognito mode is and isn’t.
To be fair to them, they do clearly lay out what Incognito is: none of your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms are saved on your device.
What it isn’t: it won’t prevent you from telling a website who you are, or prevent your activity or location from being visible to the websites you visit, your IT admin or even your ISP. It won’t prevent the websites you visit from serving ads based on your activity during an Incognito session either.
The lawsuit against them says the average person doesn’t understand the nuances. This is corroborated by research which shows that users misunderstand features of private browsing modes.
Google employees joke about Incognito
Some internal Google messages on Incognito have been brought to light by Bloomberg and they don’t look good. The first is an email that the marketing chief sent to the CEO.
In it was the bullet point, “make Incognito Mode truly private. We are limited in how strongly we can market Incognito because it’s not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost damaging.”
It appears it is a running joke among Google engineers too. In a chat one engineer candidly wrote, “We need to stop calling it Incognito and stop using a Spy Guy icon.” To which another responded by saying that the icon should be of Guy Incognito, a Simpsons character which “accurately conveys the level of privacy it provides.”
The engineers think Incognito is a joke and here you were thinking you were unplugged from the matrix when you turned it on.
Still more Google employees implored their bosses to change the customer-facing language on Incognito. One product lead made a proposal to make the launch screen say, “You are NOT protected from Google,” instead of “You are protected from other people who use this device.” This was rejected by executives, as you would expect.
If there’s anything to take away from these emails and texts, it’s that Google employees know that Incognito is anything but Incognito. The courts will have to decide if Google is liable to pay users for misleading them about what Incognito is, however clearly they think they communicated its limitations.
Now we know
We have all known that Incognito Mode is not a Tor alternative. Personally, I use it when I don’t want to have to delete the search query from my browsing history. Or when I want to check out videos on YouTube that I don’t want to factor into my recommendations after the fact.
So, Incognito is not without its uses. All we have to remember is that it’s not a spy-grade tool to unplug from the matrix.
Also read:
Reopening a tab you mistakenly closed & other Google Chrome shortcuts you need to know
How to deal with a PDF that won’t open in Chrome. No, it’s probably not corrupted
26 comments
Incognito is a scam
They are taking us for a ride.
😂😂😂 so the spy guy icon stays coz they’re actually spying when you think you’re not being watched. Anyways that’s just another reason to use DuckDuckGo (besides their cool mail forwarding feature) or Brave or TOR
🤣 We misunderstood what the spy guy means. I have to be honest though, DuckDuckGo didn’t take with me. TOR is too much of a hustle for my use. So, I’m stuck with Incognito.
Hahaha DuckDuckGo (for Android) & TOR are always in Incognito. DDG gives you these anonymous email addresses it’s just amazing. You can also configure DDG to Post your search queries if you don’t even want your queries to show on their server’s log. The only reason I do not like TOR is the relays…it’s so slow & the fact that you can’t even open Techzim without an internet bundle (relay ;]). As for Brave, I have no idea.
😅 I got layers of browsers on like its winter!
– Safari coz it wont turn my laptop into a hot plate. Only Ghostery and Adblock installed
– Chrome when i’m doing google things and when i need a site to work. It has a fist full of extensions installed
– Edge to read me bedtime stories with the great online text to speech voices and to have a little bit more built in privacy protection (against other companies. Microsoft already has my genetic sequence!)
– Duck Duck Go is part of the blackout go-bag i concocted a while ago when the net was messed with by Gov. Use it along with a VPN when i want better speed than what tor can do especially through a VPN or when Tor gets me kicked out for being a bot
– Tor needs no introduction. Risky links all go through here
– Brave is good for general browsing and going beyond my daily limit on freepik when i need stock photos
Generally I have all the built in privacy aides enabled on all the browsers.
From what I understand from PrivacyTube, I should ideally segregate certain sites and services to their own dedicated browser to minimise the usefulness of my browsing data in profiling me. I’m not on that level though. My vpn and extensions are about as far as I go
hustle or hassle ?
Hassle is the correct one in strict terms, but Hustle, while grammatically awkward, is correct in its own way too!
Tor is great fro privacy
It’s good all the time
Good? That’s not the word I would use.
Too many people are too lazy to care about protecting their privacy. Use of Android OS, and any other Google product is resignation from the hassle of fighting for one’s privacy rights.
I would say going digital is a surrender to one’s privacy. I’m thinking of going back to writing letters and sending Ravens 😂😂
Only the postman, or the nosy roommate/parent can peek into your physical letters. That’s still miles better than the thousands of organisations that know what you get up to using Chrome.
I fall squarely in that camp. I can’t be bothered. Take my data and let me browse in peace. I’m deep in the Google ecosystem, there is no escape. Save yourselves, it’s too late for me.
The moment you decide to view some pages on someone else’s computer located in a jungle or deep under the ocean is the exact moment you gave up privacy 😂. It’s like sex😂😂
😂 That’s one way of putting it. And here we thought we would get the cloud and get to keep our privacy.
Shouldn’t we be paid for our data that they sell? I mean the more time I spent online the more data they have right?
Build your own private browser! Problem solved kkkkkk As simple as that…
Hahaha, that’s the only way you can know for certain what data is being collected on you. Simle stuff building your own browser lol.
When we are online, privacy is a relative term.
Tracking is now serious. My wife is being bombarded by StarLife on all her social media platforms thanks to DSTV and Showmax Apps. Ari pama 1. Ini hangu I don’t mind as it enables me to stay upto date
One reason to use Firefox when you want to do this.. For me when I want to go in private mode I just go to the terminal, fire up nordvpn c za, then launch firefox using my script
#!/bin/sh
PROFILEDIR=/tmp/tmp-fx-profile.$$.d
mkdir $PROFILEDIR
firefox -profile $PROFILEDIR -no-remote -new-instance
rm -rf $PROFILEDIR
That amnesiac part always fools Google.
No wonder why I fell in love with opera browser (built in vpn). I hope there’re no flaws in it. Opera has been the best browser of all time for me
Opera got a VPN now? I used to use it until 2016(?) when they sold to a Chinese company. It used to be so nice to see my saved megabytes racking up on the side🤣 Loved that browser!
I think that in order to be really secure, you need to use something like Tor or a browser from Utopia P2P https://u.is/en/. Incognito mode does nothing at all. 🙂