Incognito and private mode offer fewer protections than you think
Your browser of choice probably offers an more private mode—but how effective is it? (Michal Vavro/Unsplash/)Lorrie Cranor is a professor of Computer Science and of Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Hana Habib is a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University. This story was originally featured on The Conversation.Many people look for more privacy when they browse the web by using their browsers in privacy-protecting modes, called “Private Browsing” in Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari, “Incognito” in Google Chrome, and “InPrivate” in Microsoft Edge.These private browsing tools sound reassuring, and they’re popular. According to a 2017 survey, nearly half of American internet users have tried a private browsing mode, and most who have tried it use it regularly.However, our research has found that many people who use private browsing have misconceptions about what protection they’re gaining. A common misconception is...