CYBERSPACE—The “Incognito” mode in the Google Chrome web browser is one of the most popular methods for porn surfers to hide their browsing histories from other users who may have access to the same computer. But Google itself has long urged caution when using Incognito browsing, and this week, for the first time, a Google Chrome developer has revealed the unsettling privacy risks that exist for Incognito users.
"We really try to help make it really clear to people that your activity is certainly still visible to the websites you visit and could be visible to your employer, to your school, and to your [internet service provider], of course," Google developer Darin Fisher told the site Thrillist on Monday.
In fact, Fisher said, the Chrome Incognito mode was never intended to guarantee complete privacy—or even a high degree of privacy. The developers did not have porn browsing in mind when they added the feature to the 2008 edition of what has since become the world’s most popular web browser.
Instead, Fisher told Thrillist, the feature was originally intended simply to block “cookies,” the tiny files that sites use to track users and keep records of their preferences. Also, by preventing the browser’s “history” tab from displaying a list of recently visited sites, Incognito was intended, for example, to prevent family members or loved ones from getting tipped off to upcoming gift purchases.
But Incognito was always meant for use on home computers. Using the feature at work will not prevent bosses or corporate IT departments from seeing that a worker has been viewing porn on the job.
Google deliberately chose the term “Incognito” rather than “private” to describe the feature, while other browsers such as Apple’s Safari do label their features “private browsing.”
But even Safari’s “private browsing” is far from fully private. Though Safari will not show a list of visited sites in the “history” tab when using private browsing, the user’s computer will store a list of every site visited regardless of whether the “private” mode was used or not.
That list is accessible using a Mac computer’s “Terminal” utility. For a possible method to delete the list of sites using Terminal, see this article on Lifehacker.org.
