Gadgetory

thanks for watching tech quickie click the subscribe button then enable notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any future videos so we've all been there it's time to handle something sensitive embarrassing or seedy and you definitely don't want it in your browser where your roommate your boss or your aunt Gertie might stumble upon it so you fire up your browser's trusty incognito or private mode which promises to keep your activity secret from anyone else who uses your computer or phone but is it that trusty what exactly does incognito mode do well here's the basic principle of operation incognito mode works by keeping your history the browser cache that contains the contents of pages you visit cookies that track your activity and form data that you enter only temporarily the idea is that once you're done with your session and you close your browser this information all gets deleted making it invisible to the next person who uses the browser this makes it not only useful for keeping your browsing habits away from prying eyes but also for getting around website features that might make using them irritating because it doesn't use cookies from your main browsing session you can use incognito mode to log into a website under a different account stop advertisers from snooping on what you're looking at and even get around website paywalls on sites that use cookies to track how many articles you've viewed before they start charging you newspaper websites are notorious for this last one however you've probably seen the warnings that pop up in incognito mode telling you your employer or Internet service provider might still be able to keep tabs on your online activity how would they do that well because incognito mode only affects what's being stored locally on your computer all of that traffic is still being routed through the servers at your ISP and also perhaps your school or office so it can still be intercepted and tracked you can learn more about that right up here so that means that if you really want to anonymize your web traffic you'll need to consider using a VP as well possibly over a network like tor to further conceal your identity also remember that just because a browser deletes the information about your session doesn't mean it will keep a determined snoop from finding out what you've been up to for example features that can run an incognito mode such as browser extensions or Adobe Flash can still leave visible traces on your computer unless you make sure that those are disabled as well and browsers also don't necessarily delete any data that you built up during an incognito session securely so some of it could still be found with a software recovery program or inside your PC's DNS cache which matches the urls of the sites you visit to the IP addresses so you'll need to make sure that you clear your DNS cache with this command if you're really worried about privacy finally things that go wrong on your PC can also compromise the effectiveness of incognito mode since many browsers delete the data from your incognito mode session once you close your session an unexpected error like a computer crash could keep that data from being deleted normally and then of course any malware or spying software like a key logger could easily be keeping tabs on your incognito browsing if your PC is infected now we're not trying to scare you or make you think that private browsing is useless it's still a powerful tool and an easy quick layer of security but just like any tool it only works if you take the appropriate precautions so make sure that your boss isn't standing over your shoulder while you're using incognito mode to send out resumes speaking of employment are you racing against the clock as a freelancer well it's challenging but with the growth of the internet there's never been more opportunities for the self-employed and FreshBooks has got you covered there cloud accounting software is designed for the way that you work and it's much more than just a simple and easy way to send professional-looking invoices it helps to be more productive more organized and get paid faster it allows you to set up online payments with just a couple of clicks it allows you to take the entire experience with you on the go with their fully featured iOS and Android apps and it even lets you see when your client has seen your invoice to put an end to the guessing games and FreshBooks is offering a 30-day unrestricted free trial to our viewers and to claim it all you have to do is go to freshbooks comm slash tech quickie we'll have that linked below and enter tech quickie and the how did you hear about us section so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other videos other videos not channels oh okay sorry sorry leave a comment with video suggestions and don't forget to subscribe and follow and hit the bell and hit your dog don't hit your dog never hit your dog that's the kind of advice we give on this show if you hit your dog all it does is upset them they're hurt and they don't really understand why because they're just dogs it's all about positive reinforcement read a book they'll teach you all about behavioral conditioning