We all visit websites that we don't necessarily want anyone else to know about. And while deleting your browsing history will ensure that no one sees the sites you've visited under history manager, it's much easier to simply ensure that no traces of your browsing experience ever appear on your computer.

How do I open the Incognito tab you ask?
Step 1:
To open incognito mode, start your Browser and click the three-dotted icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Step 2:
Click New Incognito Window (Inprivate mode for explorer) and start browsing. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+ Shift + N to bring up a new tab in incognito mode without entering the Browser settings menu.

Now that we know how to use Incognito mode, lets checkout: What people use Incognito mode for?

Unsurprisingly, most people refused to answer this question (48%). The people who did answer mostly use it to search for specific things that they most likely don’t want to have in their history and be part of the personalized search (37.2%).

Of that 32%, 18% used Incognito Private browsing to shop. This has many benefits such as keeping your shopping habits of the web, hiding your preferences which stops you from being inundated with ads. Another benefit is that whenever you input your credit information it cannot be traced back using your computer.

7% of people use Private browsing to look up other people e.i celebrities, influencers, public figures etc. Only 1% of people used Private browsing for everything.

In another article, we discussed: Where Private Browsing was used? You can read about it in-depth here.

Nonetheless, the vast majority of the respondents use private browsing at home (77.7%). What is more surprising is that only 36.3% of the people who use private browsing use it in a public place. It might be that they might not feel safe using a public computer, this is another symptom of people misunderstanding what they are protected from.

This misunderstanding also likely contributes to the high usage of private browsing at work (22%), despite its ineffectiveness for hiding browsing patterns from network administrators. Another reason for the use of private browsing at work is separating personal browsing from work browsing.

Incognito mode will stop your browser from keeping a record of the sites you've visited while using incognito mode. Downloaded material and bookmarks, however, will be saved. And while incognito windows will keep your browser from saving information about your browsing history, it can't stop other programs from doing so. So don't use the feature and expect it to keep your browsing history a secret from your office's IT department.

Private browsing is an important feature that is used by over 20% of the Internet population. Unfortunately, many people use it for the wrong reasons, as it can give them a false sense of security, and this can be harmful, It is of paramount importance for you to be aware of privacy-enhancing technology so that users can make informed choices.