It is probably not our knowledge that when we are browsing we leave fingerprints on the web inserted in cookies, in the cache and in the history, assuming this without doubt some risk and some Disadvantages for users.
Surely if we are going to make a purchase with our credit card or with our PayPal account, in no way would we want such information to be compromised in any way. You probably do not want that when using a computer that is not yours there is the possibility that your passwords are registered or you simply do not want your searches to be reflected in the browser’s history.
Whatever the case, there is a very practical solution for this and it is called private browsing, something that the best known browsers allow us and include in their function. Next we will show you what private browsing is, for what purposes we can use it and how we can activate the function in the most common browsers , which will be very useful when you need to surf the internet wanting to keep the privacy of your data.
Index:
Private browsing focuses on maintaining the protection of the privacy and security of users, making sure not to store the history, cookies and cache so as not to leave a trace while browsing.
Safari, Apple’s browser, was the first to incorporate a private browsing feature, even if it went unnoticed. Today, the most used browsers worldwide have the ability to navigate in private or incognito mode between their functions.
Advantages
It differs from the usual navigation because it gives the user the possibility to navigate anonymously to a certain extent. The information that the private browsing mode usually hides is cookies (they disappear after closing the window), the history of the pages we visited during the session and the data of forms that apply for autocomplete . Also avoid storing cache, passwords and download lists.
Disadvantages
Rare thing could mean a disadvantage for us when using the private function of our favorite browser, but there are. First it should be clarified that the private browsing offered by these browsers is not completely anonymous since it does not hide the IP address.
It also does not work against malicious agents that might be on our computer, so if it is the case that we are infected by a keylogger or some other spyware, the private browsing mode will not protect our data from them.
Perhaps one of the disadvantages that may arise from the use of private browsing is that by not recording the history of pages we have visited, we will not be able to resort to it in case we have forgotten the address and we want to go back to a certain place.
Private browsing brings significant advantages to users who have the need to protect their privacy and personal data, but not only that but it brings us some other benefits that we may not know about and that it would be important to know to take advantage of them.
First of all we should talk about what cookies are and what their function is:
What are cookies?
They are text files that store information about our browsing. Its function is mainly to remember basic data about it so that, for example, we don’t have to log in every time we enter a page again Web. They also act by allowing other sites to know our preferences, tastes, browsing habits, purchases and planning according to the recent activity on the internet.
The purpose of this is that third parties can use this information to show us ads according to it. That is, if for example we have searched about the price of a Router device, probably some of the next Ads that you can view on websites will show you advertising about that.
Of course, not all of us find it very pleasant to provide information to advertisers, companies or even governments, according to the case. Much less than these third parties use the information stored in cookies to sell us even at a higher price, due to the fact that they already know that we are interested in it.
Faced with this concern, there is the possibility of using the private browsing function that usually includes the most used browsers to avoid the previous situation, remembering that private browsing eliminates cookies once the session is over.
As we said, If you have been interested in buying a Router, traveling to a specific destination, third parties may use this information to offer you their products at a higher cost. That is why when buying a plane ticket or making a hotel reservation online because it is much better to do it from private browsing mode to avoid an additional cost.
The benefits that private browsing gives us is to log in from two different accounts on the same website, such as open two different emails from Gmail on the same computer. First you open one in the main browser window and once the private window has started and opened you can open another one and thus manage two accounts at the same time from the same browser without any inconvenience. Fantastic, right?
If you are going to use a computer in a shared way, you probably won’t want your passwords registered, something that is usually more common than you think. You may also find it tedious to have to close the Facebook account or someone else requesting a login to be able to log in with yours or just for some reason you don’t want to your searches and visits are saved.
Whatever the case described above, private browsing works as a solution to these, since allows you to enter through it to any page where there is already a session open.
We have also mentioned about the information that is being collected about our interests and the Google search engine is no exception in this, since it usually shows us the results. Therefore, if we want to obtain more accurate results and less influenced by the information we provide, we can use incognito mode to obtain them.
In addition to the aforementioned, there are sites on the Internet that set limits based on a specific time for visits or reading free articles, asking for a paid subscription once they are sold out. Private browsing gives us the ability to skip this, because this information is stored in cookies .
Undoubtedly, of the uses that have been most given to private browsing has to do with visits to adult sites, mainly because it does not keep track of the history, something unwanted for Some visitors to these websites. Also because the searches we perform will not appear again as a result of the autocomplete function and therefore will be far from the reach of children.
The main browsers for our computer or mobile device usually have a private browsing mode built in. Next we will show you how to access it in each of them, although basically it can be done in a similar way .
For Google Chrome
In Google Chrome this function is known as “ incognito mode ” and is a very simple tool to use.
- To open an incognito window, all you have to do is go to the top right of the screen, where the three points are located and select «New incognito window». You can also do it through a simple keyboard shortcut by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+N.
- keys In the case of the version of Chrome for Android you will have to press the «Menu» key and then select «New incognito tab».
For Mozilla Firefox
The process for Firefox is very similar to the one in Chorme. Just go to the three sidebars located above and to the right, click on them and then select “New private window”. The shortcut to access this function in Firefox it’s Ctrl+Mayús+P.
In Opera
Of course, this function could not be missing in the Opera browser . Once you have opened it you will select the “Menu”, there will appear the option “New private window” which will be the one we will have to choose. It’s that simple!
In Safari
Opening the private browsing mode in Safari on your Mac is very easy, you simply have to select the “File” option and then choose “New private window”.
In the event that you use Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch mobile device , you can activate private browsing by selecting the button in the lower right corner that includes two pictures that are one over the other.
There will show all open tabs and you can see that in the lower left corner is the option «Nav. private », which you must select. Ready, from now on you can browse with privacy.
