Between late 2023 and Feb 2024, Google settled a massive $5 billion lawsuit over its Incognito mode.
The lawsuit exposed something most people didn’t realize while using the incognito mode. Google’s Incognito mode was tracking users the whole time, despite giving the impression that it makes you anonymous online. Eventually, as part of the settlement, Google had to destroy billions of user records to settle this lawsuit.
So if you’ve ever used Incognito mode while being under the impression that your browsing is private and secure (just like me), you’re definitely not alone. Millions of users believed the same thing, and frankly speaking, some still to this day believe it.
But Incognito mode only hides your activity from other people using your device, and that’s pretty much it. Your ISP can see everything. Your employer/admin can see everything. Even the websites you visit can see everything you do online.
So if Incognito mode is no good in protecting your privacy, is there any better alternative? That’s exactly what I am going to cover in this article.
I’ll show you four actual and better incognito mode alternative options that work well. I am also going to explain when to use each one of those options, and help you figure out which solution fits your specific needs.
But first, let’s start by figuring out what incognito mode actually is and how safe (or unsafe) it really is.
What is Incognito Mode?
Incognito mode is a private browsing feature that every browser these days have.
I am pretty sure you’ve enabled incognito mode at least once in your life. Maybe when browsing for something private or perhaps for researching something you’d rather not have pop up in your browser history later.
As I said, these days, all major browsers have this feature, though they all call it something slightly different.
For example:
- Chrome calls it Incognito Mode
- Firefox has named it Private Browsing
- Safari also named it Private Browsing
- And Microsoft Edge went with InPrivate
Now, what happens when you browse in incognito mode? Well, your browser stops saving certain information locally on your device.
By certain information, I mean:
- It won’t store the websites you visited in your history
- The cookies that websites normally leave on your computer get cleared out the moment you close that incognito window
- Any forms you filled out, or searches you typed, won’t show up in your autocomplete suggestions later
Basically, once you close that private window, your browser pretends the browsing session never happened.
I always like to explain incognito browsing with the “renting a car for a day trip” analogy.
You have rented a car for a day, you drive it around, you go wherever you need to go. But when you return it to the rental company at the end of the day, there’s no record in your personal file of where you went or what you did. However, the rental company still tracked the mileage and has GPS logs, but your personal driving history is clean.
This might make you question, is incognito mode really safe then? Let’s understand this in the next section.
Is Incognito Mode Safe (If Not, Then Why)?
No, incognito mode is not safe if you’re after real privacy online.
I know this might come as a surprise to many of you out there who’ve been relying on incognito mode, thinking they’re browsing privately. But honestly speaking, incognito mode only hides your activity from other people using the same device. And that’s pretty much it!
Let me quickly break down what incognito mode doesn’t protect you from.
First off, your internet service provider (ISP) can still track every single website you visit. Your ISP logs all your browsing data, and that too along with timestamps. So, let’s say you’re browsing something at 2 AM on a Tuesday, they know about it.
Similarly, if you’re on a work or school network, the IT department can monitor everything you do online. Incognito mode does absolutely nothing to hide your browsing from network administrators. They can see:
- Which sites did you visit
- How long did your session last
- And what you downloaded from that website
Also, all the websites you open using incognito mode can still see your IP address because incognito mode doesn’t mask or hide your IP.
It basically means that they know your approximate location and can track your activity across their website. Not to mention, browser fingerprinting also works normally (like it would in normal browsing) in incognito mode. Websites can identify you based on your:
- Browser version
- Screen resolution
- Installed fonts
- And dozens of other unique characteristics
On top of this all, If someone has legal authority (like government agencies) to request your browsing data from your ISP or from websites directly, incognito mode will be useless.
And before you get angry and annoyed, you should know that browser companies aren’t hiding any of this from you.
When you open an incognito window in, let’s say, Chrome, there’s a disclaimer right there explaining that your activity might still be visible to websites you visit, your employer or school, and your internet service provider. Firefox also gives the same kind of disclaimer.
But most people just ignore these warnings or click past them without reading, thinking that they will be anonymous online.
4 Best Incognito Alternatives for Safe and Secure Browsing
I have talked about what incognito mode actually is and what makes it unsafe for private and secure browsing online. But if not incognito mode, then what? Are there any good Incognito alternatives?
Here are four of them. Read till the end and choose the best Incognito alternative based on your specific use case.
1. Anti-Detect Browsers
Anti-detect browsers allow you to manage multiple online identities without websites knowing they’re all coming from the same person or a one single device. They have something called a browser profile. Each browser profile has a unique IP address and browser fingerprints.
Yes, they change your browser fingerprint for each profile you create. Your browser fingerprint is made up of things like:
- Your screen resolution
- Timezone
- Installed fonts
- WebGL data
- And dozens of other technical details that websites collect to identify you.
Anti-detect browsers mask and modify these fingerprints, so each browsing profile looks like a completely different person using a different device.
Antidetect browsers are hands down the best solution if you want ultimate privacy.
Apart from privacy in casual browsing, antidetect browsers will work best for you if you’re:
- Managing multiple social media accounts for clients
- Running several e-commerce stores
- Doing competitor research
- Or working in affiliate marketing or crypto
You can create separate browser profiles that don’t know about each other, meaning each will have different IP addresses, different browser fingerprints, and completely isolated cookies and cache.
Gologin is one of the leading anti-detect browsers out there. It gives you multiple anonymity features like:
- Profile isolation, where each profile operates independently
- Team collaboration features if you’re working with others
- And lets you customize fingerprints down to the smallest detail
- You can also switch between profiles without logging in and out constantly, which saves a ton of time if you’re managing multiple accounts.
You can try Gologin’s forever free plan that allows you to create upto 3 browser profiles.
There’s also 1Browser, which is a entry level option in this space. If you want to test out how anti-detect browsers work before committing to a paid solution, you can try 1Browser. There’s a free plan of 1Browser that lets you create up to 20 fully isolated browser profiles.
2. VPNs
When you turn a VPN on, all your internet traffic gets routed through a server run by the VPN company, which hides your real IP address (replaces it with a VPN’s server IP) and encrypts everything you send and receive.
This means your ISP can not see which websites you’re visiting. They’ll only see that you’re connected to a VPN server. And any website you visit will see the VPN server’s IP address instead of your real IP, which helps hide your location.
That being said, VPNs are far from perfect. Although nobody on the internet can see your real IP, but what about the VPN provider itself? Yes, a VPN provider can see all your traffic since it passes through their servers.
By connecting to a VPN, you’re just shifting trust from your ISP to the VPN company. Some websites also block traffic from known VPN IP addresses, which can be frustrating if you’re trying to access streaming services or certain online platforms.
In most cases, free VPNs are problematic. Many of the free ones log your browsing data and sell it to advertisers, which defeats the entire purpose. As the saying by Bruce Schneier goes:
“If something is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product.”
Generally speaking, paid VPNs are somewhat more trustworthy, but again, you still have to believe they’re actually following their no-logs policy.
VPNs also sometimes slow down your connection speed because your traffic has to travel further and go through encryption.
If you just want casual browsing with better privacy than incognito mode, a VPN works fine. But for complete anonymity, carrying out a speed-intensive task, or something more complex, a VPN might not be the best choice.
3. Proxies
Proxies work somewhat similarly to VPNs because they route your traffic through another server called a proxy server. But the difference is that they’re lighter weight and don’t encrypt everything. This solves the speed issue, but makes the proxy a little less secure for sensitive browsing.
One of the famous proxy providers is Floppydata. Proxy providers like Floppydata also offer rotating residential proxies that change your IP address automatically. Such proxies are ideal for scraping websites or accessing content that’s restricted to certain regions.
You can easily set up your device (or system) to route specific applications through a proxy, and everything else can use your regular internet connection.
Now, you can’t have this kind of selective routing in VPNs. You should prefer proxies over VPNs if:
- You want to scrape data from websites
- You’re doing market research across different locations
- You need to conduct a test to see how your content appears in different countries
The only disadvantage of proxies is that they don’t encrypt your traffic in the manner VPNs do. So if you want to do targeted tasks and speed matters to you more than encryption, you should go for proxies.
4. Secure Privacy-Focused Browsers
The sole purpose of privacy browsers is to solve the problem of non-secure browsing. These browsers have privacy settings built into them. Now, you might think, what is the difference between antidetect browsers and privacy browsers then?
Well, they are different. How? Instead of managing multiple identities, privacy browsers focus on blocking trackers and minimizing data collection for your main browsing identity.
For example, one of the most famous secure browsers, Brave, is known for blocking ads and trackers automatically without needing any third-party extensions.
Likewise, you can easily and quickly configure Firefox with strong privacy settings if you disable telemetry and enable tracking protection.
Both of these browsers I mentioned (Brave and Firefox) are open source, which means anybody can review the code of these browsers to make sure there aren’t any hidden data collection features.
You can also use a Tor Browser if you want god-level privacy. It routes your traffic through multiple encrypted layers, which makes it nearly impossible to trace back to you.
But keep in mind that Tor is slow because of all that routing it handles. Not to mention that many websites either block Tor traffic or make you solve frustratingly endless captchas.
These privacy browsers work well for everyday use when you want better privacy than what Chrome or Safari offers.
Best Incognito Mode Alternative You Can Have
What I’ve learned after years of testing and trying different online privacy tools is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Better incognito mode alternative surly exits, but it all depends on your use case.
If you just casually browse and want better privacy overall than what incognito mode offers, you are all set with a privacy-focused browser like Brave or Firefox by your side. Some of the privacy browsers also provide VPN service as well, but if not, you can always pair it with a good VPN.
But if you manage multiple client accounts for work or run an online business that requires anonymity online, you should go for an anti-detect browser.
GoLogin handles this better than most options I’ve tested over the years. It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, and also allows you to create cloud profiles that you can access from anywhere. Also, Gologin has an Android mobile app, meaning you can even access browser profiles on your mobile.
Sign up for Gologin and try it for free now.
FAQs
What is the alternative to incognito mode?
The best incognito mode alternative varies from person to person and depends on what you need. For managing multiple accounts or business related use case, the best incognito code alternative is an anti-detect browser like GoLogin.
However, if you are after general overall privacy, you can use a privacy-based browser along with a VPN. Lastly, if you need to hide your IP for specific tasks and want speed, proxies are a great alternative.
Which browser is 100% untraceable?
Let’s be very honest here. No browser is completely or 100% untraceable. Although Tor Browser comes closest (out of all the methods we discussed) by routing your traffic through multiple encrypted layers, it has its weaknesses, especially if you’re not careful.
The biggest giveaway, even after using Tor, would most probably be your behavior if you log into accounts or download files that contain identifying information. Your traceability on the internet depends more on how you use the browser than the actual browser itself.
