Why private browsing is important?

A person may think he is not online enough to risk his safety or that he will never fall into the trap of unsafe websites. Although the internet is a place where the exchange of information is near impossible, still there are some good reasons to “go incognito.” Not a day passes by when data breaches and cyber-attacks make the headlines of the news that is why you need to ensure that you have a surefire, foolproof way of avoiding these circumstances. Cyber-attacks are sometimes relatively harmless, but quite often they steal private information such as identities, passwords and financial information that could prove to be harmful to you and might pose a threat to your well-being. Virus scanners and firewalls offer a little help against data breaches too, but you need to have an added layer of protection when you go online.

How do web browsers work?

Your web browser, either it is Firefox, opera, safari or Google saves everything you enter including the web addresses, passwords, financial information, while the cookies track your activity and also holds the record of the temporary files that you download. These things are convenient in the case that you visit these sites often, and are not able to remember the password, or don’t want to go all the hassle of inputting it every time you log on to a specific website. But if certain someone gets ahold of your personal computer and gets his hand on the information that is potentially harmful to you; that might put you in jeopardy. Not only will it be embarrassing for you if your internet activities are exposed by someone, but it will also be quite harmful if the information shared is sensitive.

Benefits of using Incognito mode

With incognito or private browsing, one doesn’t only get safe, but all of the information listed above doesn’t get saved. As a matter of fact, all the web addresses and information you access through a private mode is discarded as soon as the session is ended. This is useful in the case that you are using your computer over a public network or using a public computer at a particular location. An added benefit of using private browsing is that cookies will not get stored on your computer because the session will be only live till you close all the private tabs. Additionally, a person can use private browsing to log on to several accounts on the same websites, which is quite useful if you want to logon to two different Gmail accounts at the same time.

Limitations of private browsing

Though private browsing is efficient, it doesn’t prevent your web browser from storing your data. Also, if you are using a company computer, going incognito won’t be able to save you, as the system administrators will still have access to your computer and can track your activities. Also, if there is a malware on your computer, or there is a key logging software installed on your computer, hackers will still be able to access the data stored on your computer or what you are doing online. Therefore, it is advised that you use a VPN while browsing and scan your computer for possible malware. Professionals have advised the computer owners to install a strong anti-malware program to keep viruses and other malicious web monitoring software at bay.