Does incognito mode really protect us?

Browsers today have a large number of functions. We have at our disposal a wide range of possibilities in this regard. Some are more oriented towards privacy and security; others may have more extensions available, others more functions ... But in general, we can say that they all share a common base. In this newsletter, we're going to speak approximately in incognito or non-public mode. Does it really help to maintain privacy?

The private mode in the browser

 Privacy is one of the most essential users. As we know, our data and personal information have the great value on the network. Many marketing companies are constantly looking for a way to steal all that to later include us in spam campaigns, send targeted advertising, or even sell them to third parties.

Luckily we can make use of different equipment that protect us and prevent our information from being exposed on the Internet. However, it is through the browser where we can have the greatest problems. After all, we use it to navigate, login, fill out forms ... In short, a place where we constantly interact.

Now, modern browsers have a feature called private mode. They allow us to prevent our information from being stored, and, at least on paper, it serves to keep our privacy safe. But of course, as it often happens, they also have certain drawbacks that can put you in doubt as to whether it is really effective or not.

For this reason, in this article, we have wanted to mention this fact. Is the private mode of a browser really? Is there a security problem using it?


It does not serve as a security tool

The first thing to keep in mind is that browsing in private mode will not serve as a security tool. That is to say; we are not going to take less risk of downloading malicious software or infecting our computer in any way. Nor to be victims of Phishing attacks or any external threat that affects our devices.

Regarding privacy, it is true that we prevent browsing history from being stored, sites where we have logged in, etc. For example, it is useful if we share equipment with other users. We do not leave a trace of the pages we have visited. Now, it must be taken into account that the websites visited, the navigation we carry out could also be seen if we are browsing a corporate network or a public network such as a university, for example. Something similar will happen if we are using an access point in a restaurant or shopping center.

Basically, we can say that this private mode of the browser is responsible for managing how the data of the browsing activity is stored on our personal equipment, but not what we send or receive over the network.

Even on our own personal computer, browsing could be tracked in case we have some malware designed to analyze the network or DNS requests. In this case, the incognito mode could not protect us.

Nor could it protect us from certain fingerprints that some means may use in order to track information on our equipment, such as its characteristics.

In short, we can say that the incognito mode of the browser can be useful to protect our privacy to a certain extent locally. However, it will not prevent them from tracking us over the network or through malicious software.

VPN services to improve privacy

Now, if we really want to improve privacy, we can make use of different tools with which we can protect ourselves. Something very interesting is to make use of VPN services. Its purpose is to encrypt our connections and prevent possible intruders from obtaining personal information or collecting data in any way.

We have both free and paid VPN services at our disposal. We simply have to choose the option that interests us the most since some offer different interesting functions, as well as greater bandwidth. We can also have more possibilities when choosing the server we want and its location.

They are present in all types of devices and operating systems. They represent an important barrier to protect our privacy and security when surfing the net, logging in, and performing searches—a very important complement to other programs that protect us, such as an antivirus.

A very common situation where we must use a VPN to protect our privacy is when using public networks. There we can run into intruders who track all our movements and even capture the packets that we send and receive on the network. They could steal our passwords and seriously compromise our security. That is where these types of tools come into play that; what they do is that the connection goes through a tunnel that protects personal information at all times.

 

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