Private Browsing: Why We Should Operate Online as if Everyone is Always Watching

 Google Chrome Incognito Mode Overview

A common misconception exists in the public regarding private browsing in Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode. Many users believe their actions while in Incognito Mode are completely concealed from public view. Can You Trust Chrome’s Incognito Mode? What It Does and What It Doesn’t Do uncovers an important reality when utilizing private browsing tools (2023). While Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode prevents a local machine from storing session information, such as browser history, download history, and other common cookie information, the websites you browse still collect the same information about your activity while in Incognito Mode. While Google Chrome Incognito Mode can keep your information from showing up in the history section of your browser and your downloads folder, your activity is still viewable and tied to your IP address. A trained eye will locate your internet activity whenever you use Google Chrome.


Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing Overview

Private Browsing - Use Firefox without saving history explores the role of Mozilla Firefox in improved privacy while browsing (n.d.). In addition to automatically deleting browser and downloads history on your local machine, Private Browsing in Mozilla Firefox provides Enhanced Tracking Protection that prevents third party applications from collecting data while in Private Browsing Mode. 


As a leading industry in sales, Google wants to collect your private information to increase their profit margins through targeted advertising. Firefox Mozilla provides a different user focus as a company that protects user privacy from third party applications. Even with these added measures, your Internet Service Provider will always have access to all of your activity. 


Forensic Investigators tracking a user’s online activity can often still extract a user’s activity from their RAM, Pagefile, or unallocated space when the user operates over Google Chrome Incognito Mode or Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing. While these browsers aim to provide reasonable privacy, they often leave artifacts behind on the hard drive. While finding a user’s activity can be time consuming and forensic investigators are constricted by time, they possess powerful tools and experience that increase the likelihood they will find the information they are looking for if it exists.


VPN Overview

Using a VPN encrypts the traffic between you and your VPN provider to obscure your activity. Utilizing a VPN can hide your activity from your ISP; however, your VPN provider will have access to your information. 


TOR Router Overview

Using a TOR Router operates similarly to a VPN; however it changes the encryption with each hop across the web. While total activity will be obscured, the FBI owns multiple hop locations. TOR offers an extremely high level of privacy when also connected to a VPN; however, the FBI can connect dots when they piece together their hop location activity. Layers of obscurity make it more difficult to track a user’s activity; however, when the FBI owns a percentage of your nodes, you are never truly hidden from anyone on the internet. There is no such thing as privacy on the web, there is only obscurity. Ultimately, everything on the web can be tied to your machine. The challenge is tying that machine to an individual’s identity. In some ways, a forensic investigator is constrained by the owner of the user account’s willingness to confess.


Because the internet serves to connect users across the globe, in order to operate safely across the internet, users must always operate as if everyone is always watching. While websites and services often promote protection and privacy, the internet does not function to allow user privacy. Alternately, the internet was created to increase global connectivity and visibility, and that is exactly what it does.


References: 


Küçükkarakurt, F. (2023, June 22). Can You Trust Chrome’s Incognito Mode? What It Does and What It Doesn’t Do. MUO. https://www.makeuseof.com/trust-chromes-incognito-mode/ 

Private browsing - use firefox without saving history. Private Browsing - Use Firefox without saving history | Firefox Help. (n.d.). https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history#w_other-ways-to-control-what-information-firefox-saves

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