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At least google is finally admitting that incognito mode is useless for privacy online. It protects local data only, they might as well call it "porn mode" as t

At least google is finally admitting that incognito mode is useless for privacy online. It protects local data only, they might as well call it "porn mode" as the only real value is to avoid having history and cookies stored along side your everyday browsing history.

pbhjpbhj 3y ago
>avoid having history ... Except that's what this is about, no, Google do record the history of your access. You can pause history recording on a Google account. Presumably they also lied about that and just set a "dontShowToUser" flag and continue to record the history?
gruez 3y ago
>At least google is finally admitting that incognito mode is useless for privacy online That was abundantly clear at the start. I dug up a chromium build from 2017 and this was the incognito message: >You’ve gone incognito >Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won’t see your activity. However, downloads and bookmarks will be saved. Learn more >Chrome won’t save the following information: >* Your browsing history >* Cookies and site data >* Information entered in forms >Your activity might still be visible to: >* Websites you visit >* Your employer or school >* Your internet service provider Sure, this doesn't explicitly say "this is useless for privacy", and figuring out what incognito mode does requires some reading comprehension, but they're not exactly trying to hide it either. Therefore the claim that google is "finally admitting" doesn't make much sense.
- rapind 3y ago
  Um what? > Now you can browse privately So consumers are insane for thinking they can browse privately. Is it “private” if you’re being tracked?
  - gruez 3y ago
    What "privately" means is fuzzy. Clearly it can't be entirely private, because there's several ways that information can get leaked out and is outside of the browser/computers control (eg. someone looking behind you, or the various middleboxes in between your computer and the web server). If you read the notice in its entirety, you'd know what the notice meant by "privately". Likewise, if you read my comment in its entirety, you'd see that I explicitly acknowledged that the notice wasn't super obvious and required some reading comprehension, and my objection was with the "google finally admitting" characterization. >Sure, this doesn't explicitly say "this is useless for privacy", and figuring out what incognito mode does requires some reading comprehension
  - wrs 3y ago
    If you were “not being tracked” to the degree you seem to be assuming, then you couldn’t even log into a website, as you have to be “tracked” for it to know you’re the same person who logged in a second ago. They went so far as to put in the tautological warning that your activity “might” be visible to the websites you visit. Really, you think?

pbhjpbhj 3y ago

>avoid having history ... Except that's what this is about, no, Google do record the history of your access. You can pause history recording on a Google account. Presumably they also lied about that and just set a "dontShowToUser" flag and continue to record the history?

gruez 3y ago

>At least google is finally admitting that incognito mode is useless for privacy online That was abundantly clear at the start. I dug up a chromium build from 2017 and this was the incognito message: >You’ve gone incognito >Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won’t see your activity. However, downloads and bookmarks will be saved. Learn more >Chrome won’t save the following information: >* Your browsing history >* Cookies and site data >* Information entered in forms >Your activity might still be visible to: >* Websites you visit >* Your employer or school >* Your internet service provider Sure, this doesn't explicitly say "this is useless for privacy", and figuring out what incognito mode does requires some reading comprehension, but they're not exactly trying to hide it either. Therefore the claim that google is "finally admitting" doesn't make much sense.

rapind 3y ago
Um what? > Now you can browse privately So consumers are insane for thinking they can browse privately. Is it “private” if you’re being tracked?
- gruez 3y ago
  What "privately" means is fuzzy. Clearly it can't be entirely private, because there's several ways that information can get leaked out and is outside of the browser/computers control (eg. someone looking behind you, or the various middleboxes in between your computer and the web server). If you read the notice in its entirety, you'd know what the notice meant by "privately". Likewise, if you read my comment in its entirety, you'd see that I explicitly acknowledged that the notice wasn't super obvious and required some reading comprehension, and my objection was with the "google finally admitting" characterization. >Sure, this doesn't explicitly say "this is useless for privacy", and figuring out what incognito mode does requires some reading comprehension
- wrs 3y ago
  If you were “not being tracked” to the degree you seem to be assuming, then you couldn’t even log into a website, as you have to be “tracked” for it to know you’re the same person who logged in a second ago. They went so far as to put in the tautological warning that your activity “might” be visible to the websites you visit. Really, you think?