Private browsing is a privacy feature that you may know as incognito mode or private mode. Its main characteristic is that it allows web browsers not to store information about the page we are browsing.

Private browsing offers a temporary session that does not share data with the browser , does not save information about web pages, history, web cache, passwords, information from forms, or cookies, deleting these or other temporary files when we end the session.

There are no guarantees that anonymous browsing is 100% private. You should know how to turn off private browsing on ipad because a bug in the NVIDIA drivers made it possible at the time to store information in incognito mode, and some plugins such as Flash are capable of saving cookies that are not deleted by default at the end of the session. At the time, it was also commented that Google's "super cookies" used techniques to also track in incognito mode.

The feature is available in Chrome through incognito mode ; as private browsing in Firefox, Safari, and Opera, and under inPrivate mode in Internet Explorer and Edge. Essentially, they serve the same purpose and work similarly in all of these browsers .

Private Browsing Uses

Private browsing is mainly focused on safeguarding the privacy and security of the user, although it should be remembered that it is not the same as browsing the Internet anonymously, which requires other tools such as TOR.

A typical use is for economic transactions, such as purchases with credit cards and service accounts such as PayPal, administrative procedures or others, without leaving information about them.

The consumption of adult material is another of the greatest uses of private browsing, because it prevents, -for example, minors in the house from accessing material that is not appropriate for their age. Or that your partner sees the girls/boys with whom you have fun... Here, we don't have 100% privacy security either, but it's always better than standard browsing. It has long been discussed how major porn portals use tracking tools and transmit browsing data even in incognito mode.

Beyond the above, there are other uses for private browsing. We review some of them:

Access to a website with several accounts at the same time

Most websites do not allow you to log in with more than one account at a time. But private browsing mode offers a solution. You can stay authenticated in the main browser window and open a private browsing tab to use a second account.

Use of third-party equipment

If you have to use the IPad of a relative or friend, private browsing on ipad allows you not to leave traces of your task and not to disable the access to services of the owner of the equipment as usually happens, having to leave their accounts to use yours.

Of course, this is not a foolproof solution for untrusted computers because there is malware that could record your accounts and passwords with other techniques. We must take special care when using internet from public places. Don't trust yourself when using private browsing.

“Pure” search engine results

Search engines like Google use your search history and other information they have collected about you to display personalized search results. Normally it is useful because it is based on your interests, but sometimes you may want to see the general search results that the engine offers and other users see, to see how some terms are positioned, for example your name or your company

A session in incognito mode should give you the most “pure” results possible. This method works with all web engines.

E-commerce

Following the previous use, imagine that you are investigating the online purchase of a product that you want to buy online, for example on Amazon, which, like any site that offers personalized experiences based on your user account or previous activity,  will remember that you were looking for that type of product. Amazon will not only "haunt you" on its portal but on other websites you visit. If you don't want this to happen, you can use a private browsing window. The activity will not be associated with your Amazon account or other e-commerce retailers.

Private browsing also offers other interesting uses in e-commerce. For example, if we want to surprise with the gift of a product and we do not want to leave a trace or hire a vacation trip or similar.

Reading or access limits

Some websites limit reading access to a small number of free articles, be it daily, weekly or yearly, requiring a subscription payment once the access is exhausted. If, as is normally the case, access control is based on cookies, you can use private browsing to overcome the limit. Of course, be honest and use this technique only temporarily. If you like the site consider subscribing because it will be the only way to keep it in the future. 

Conclusions

Useful function for many uses but always taking into account its scope . It limits web browser tracking but it is not anonymous browsing and other sources such as your Internet service provider, your company (if you use a computer at work) or the websites you visit will see your browsing activity.