Last week we looked at private browser settings. If you have any setup questions, go back to last week on DoubleClicks.info and check it out.
This week a few more good things you can do with the Private Mode on your browser.
If you have ever needed to browse to the same site but different accounts, you can do it with the private mode. For instance, say you want to look in two different bank accounts at the same bank. You cannot do this in the regular browser. You could open another browser and do this; however, open a private window in the same browser and you can check in to the other account at the same time. Or different email accounts, two Netflix accounts, Amazon and on it goes. Open the account in a regular browser’s tab then open a private window and open the other. Easy and works since it is totally separated from your system. When you log off it and close the browser it goes away with no trace of your access.
The same thing will work for some of us on work sites. If you have a regular account and an Admin account, you can visit both the same way. It is a very convenient solution.
Now here is a biggie you may have experienced and not realized what was happening. This seems to happen especially when you go shopping for vacation travel and plane tickets. You look them up and do not buy them. Then later you come back to purchase and the price is up…I have shopped for web site addresses and found the same thing. Always shop in a private window and go back to find the prices are the same or better. They are not keeping your browser’s cookies so they do not know that you have been there before. Now not all sites do this but some do. I do not like to shop in regular mode on my browser. Reputable sites like Amazon and other well know sites do not do this. Just be cautious.
Another thing that cookies perform in your browser in the normal mode is track you online. This is not quite as nefarious as it sounds; however, most sites do know where you were before you came to their site and what you looked at. Just like the vacation prices, it could be that some site you looked at “Thingamajig 123” at the xyz.com store and saw it for $29.00 so they could (though not likely) reduce theirs to $27.50 and then up your shipping by $5 to cover it. Again, I imagine that is rare but it has been done. There is no way for you to know or prove it. However, in private mode no one knows where you came from before you got to them.
Also, think of logging into your bank from a computer that is not yours. In normal mode your username and password could be easily recorded. Then someone else “could” access your account. In Incognito mode (Google Chrome’s name) they could not do this since nothing is left behind.
Note that you are not totally invisible in a private mode. The internet service provider can make available all of your computer’s activities if it was required of them. Private Mode only keeps your history off of your local computer and does not allow cookies for tracking.
