Incognito Mode Isn’t Private: Who Can Still See What You Do

You open a private window. The screen goes dark. Maybe there’s a little spy icon in the corner. And you think: okay, nobody can see what I’m doing.

Wrong. Your internet provider can still see where you go. Your employer can still see where you go. And the websites themselves? They still see you just fine.

Incognito in Chrome, InPrivate in Edge, Private Browsing in Firefox: different names, same idea. And most people give it way more credit than it deserves. Private browsing hides one thing, from one person. Let’s talk about who that is.

Prefer to watch instead of read? Here’s the full video — or skip it and keep reading below.

What Private Mode Actually Does

When you close a private window, your browser doesn’t keep that session’s history, cookies or form data on that computer. That’s it. That’s the feature. It protects you from the next person who sits down at the same computer.

And even that has limits. Anything you download is still there. Bookmarks you save are still there. So if you downloaded Totally_Not_A_Surprise_Party_Plan.pdf, it’s still sitting in your Downloads folder. Private mode didn’t forget. You did.

Who Can Still See You

1. The websites you visit. If you log in to Google, Amazon, Facebook or anything else in a private window, they know it’s you. You just told them. With a password.
2. Your internet provider. They can generally still see which sites you connect to. Private mode doesn’t change that at all.
3. Your work or school network. Company networks can log traffic, and a work computer can have monitoring software on it. Private mode hides it from your browser history, not from your IT department. (Trust me. I used to be that IT department.)
4. Anything already on your computer. Malware, spyware, a keylogger: private mode does nothing about any of that.

Google Actually Got Sued Over This

If you think this is just a grumpy old sysadmin being paranoid: a class-action lawsuit accused Google of tracking what people did in Incognito mode. Under the settlement terms filed in 2024, Google agreed to delete billions of data records tied to private browsing, update its Incognito disclosure to be clearer about what gets collected, and block third-party cookies in Incognito by default for five years.

No money for users, by the way. Just a clearer warning label, after the fact. That’s usually how this works.

So What Is Private Mode Good For?

• A shared computer, so the next person doesn’t see what you did or stay logged in to your accounts
• Gift shopping, so the next person on the family PC doesn’t see ads for the gift
• Signing in to a second account without logging out of your first
• Seeing a website the way a logged-out stranger would

Not hiding. Just not leaving a mess on that one computer.

What Actually Helps

1. Your browser’s own privacy settings. Block third-party cookies, turn on tracking prevention, and clear cookies when you close the browser if you can live with signing in again.
2. Fewer extensions. Every extension can potentially see what you do on the sites it’s allowed to access. Go look at your list today. You’ll find at least one you forgot about.
3. A VPN, if you understand what it does. It hides your traffic from your internet provider and the local network, but now the VPN company can see it instead. You didn’t remove the middleman. You changed middlemen. (More on that: A VPN Makes Me Completely Safe, Right?)
4. Think before you log in. The moment you sign in, the website knows exactly who you are, private window or not.

And while you’re at it, lock down the accounts themselves: Your Passwords Probably Suck: Lock Down These Accounts First.

The Short Version

1. Private mode only stops your browser saving history, cookies and form data on that computer.
2. Downloads and bookmarks stay.
3. Websites, your internet provider, your employer and any malware can still see you.
4. Use it for shared computers, gift shopping and second accounts.
5. For real privacy: browser privacy settings, fewer extensions, and thinking before you log in.

Stay grumpy.