If you’re getting targeted with surprisingly relevant ads, there’s a chance your internet activity is being tracked and analyzed by market researchers. While this doesn’t bother most people, private browsing mode can offer you some protection against online marketers and data thieves.
What is private browsing?
Whether it be Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, or Opera, remembers several components. For example, the URLs of the sites you visit, cookies, passwords, and temporary files.
This can be convenient if you frequently visit certain pages, forget your passwords, or trying to recall a website. But if someone else gains access to your computer, your most private (and embarrassing) internet activities are viewable.
With private browsing the information listed above doesn't save. In fact, all the websites in the private browsing session are immediately unaccessible when you close the browser. This comes in handy when using a public computer because you’re instantly logged out of all the accounts after closing the window.
Your cookies also are untrackable. In a normal browsing session, sites like Facebook will display highly targeted ads based on the sites you’ve visited. But in private browsing mode, your internet activity can be a target for marketing companies.
Another benefit of private browsing is you can log in to several accounts on the same site. This is useful if you need to log in to two different online accounts at once.
What are the limitations?
Although private browsing does prevent your browser from storing data, it doesn’t stop snooping on online activities in real-time. If your computer is in company network, system administrators can still track what you’re browsing, even in Incognito Mode.
Also, if spyware or keylogger malware is on your computer, hackers will still see what you’re doing. Even though private browsing has quite a few benefits, you shouldn’t solely depend on it for online privacy. Instead, you should use a virtual private network (VPN) when you go online. These encrypt your internet connection and prevent anyone from intercepting your data. And don’t forget to use a strong anti-malware program to scan your computer and keep spyware and other malicious web monitoring software at bay.
If you want to learn more about web browser security, call us today. We have the tools and expert advice you need to prevent anyone from snooping on your internet browsing.
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