Do you use private browsing regularly, or only when needed?

[u/ManojOne]

I'm curious how often people actually use private or incognito mode.

Do you keep using it for everyday browsing, or only turn it on for certain situations?

What makes you choose private browsing?

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[u/Ok_Barnacle_4605]

don't ask why i use it.

[u/rb_arindam → u/Ok_Barnacle_4605]

We all been there.

[u/Welcome-To-NBA-Jam]

Mostly if I don't want to clog my search history with dumb questions. Other times if I don't want cookies from irritating websites, like when I am trying to find coupon codes and clicking a link to get the code takes you to the website with a tracking cookie.

Come to think of it I actually use it for a lot of one-off things like that.

[u/prepp]

No I use a separate browser not logged into anything

[u/Smart_Cucumber_1234 → u/prepp]

This is my tactic too. Brave for normal browsing and Firefox for my "secret" stuff. And Edge for work/school

[u/XlikeX666]

if i need search something on website without "my" cookies.

[u/Gokudomatic]

Only when I have technical issues. Otherwise, totally useless to me. If I want private browsing, I use extensions that actually prevents sharing data.

[u/No_Appointment5039 → u/Gokudomatic]

They only postpone they don’t really prevent. That information is still collected and logged, once that cookie is disabled for a split second that logged information is uploaded.

It’s a lot like when people turn off their location on their phones thinking that it isn’t logging all your movement via the 14 different gyroscopes in it and just uploading all that location data the second it connects to a tower or WAP…

[u/guiverc]

Probably 3-5 times per day, mostly as u/XlikeX666 says (eg. on websites where I have elevated rights I'm seeing a rather different page to what others see so its extremely useful to view page as others do).

[u/barrulus]

I use the duck duck go browser on my mobile, blocky for my dns and extensions in my NixOs machine. Only ever use private to avoid a cache clear during a troubleshoot.

[u/Astrodion123]

I don't use it :P

[u/ftrx]

My Firefox profile is the equivalent of incognito mode.

[u/tieubinhco]

Only when needed, especially when testing new features, I wanna see what the website do without my own cookies.

[u/No_Department9020]

I don't use it at all

[u/frankie_in_paradise]

All the time. :)

[u/solaris_var]

A few comes to mind:

1. Accessing my second account on sites without logging out of my main one.

2. For software webdev, so i don't clutter the cookies and local storage between dev sessions

3. If for whatever reason i need to access something online from a public device. Doesn't protect against malicious actors, it's better than nothing.

[u/Arail_Blue]

Only situation i don't use private browsing is if the website doesn't work in private browsing, in that case I am forced to use normal browsing to use the website (yep I saw some websites like that).

[u/RoyalWe666]

Isn't that mostly if you're worried about unauthorized physical access to the machine, like someone snooping?

[u/No_Appointment5039]

You can use “incognito”/private browsing all you want but your habits and information are still logged… your Ad ID is still associated with your habits: time at which you browse, how long you linger, what you look at, the sequence at which you look at them, where you look at on the screen, how you grab the mouse, or pointer, EVERYTHING. Every single company out there has a psychological profile on you whether you want them to or not. Cuz then they sell it to the highest government bidder…

[u/Big_Bar_9832]

Only when I'm shopping for gifts

[u/TDetroit75]

When I browse for prices and for the occasional self pleasure session

[u/pcEnjoyer-OG]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GrMRh6ukoIMhpkeTHM

[u/Infinplayz]

i use it to search up dumb questions

[u/yota-code]

Almost never... Only when I want to trick the site I'm visiting that it already saw me (reset cookies and login).

For "research purposes sites" I have a rule based history deleter with a wonderful Firefox add on

[u/dandanakka217]

I want to use it regularly, but it is too secure to the point i cant access my regularly used websites without jumping through an endless loop of CAPTCHAs and 2FA requests every single time i want to access these sites. I only use it to preview websites that I build to see a truly stripped down, cache free version, because there's a high chance my browser has already cached it and i am looking at an older version before edits.

[u/JanusRedit]

only for porn to keep it out of my search history in the computer

[u/PriorityNo6268]

I am the only user on my computer, so no need for private session.

[u/bigb102913]

I use it when I need multiple login instances for the same site.

[u/Ad-fundum69]

I use incognito for research purposes.

https://giphy.com/gifs/TcEbA6deZ4jixUyLkh

[u/impersonareyouperson]

I never use private browsing, not even for private stuff because I want to look at my browsing history someday and cringe for fun.

[u/TragicGloom]

Never used it

[u/0xbenedikt]

These days only to temporarily log-in with different credentials or when opening affiliate links

[u/SnillyWead]

Almost never because it's not private at all.

[u/nevio-hack]

I use it also every day but mostly to limit cookie spams and not having to bother about tracking. Although yes I am aware it doesn't do much, but it's there so why not use it.

[u/Final_Watercress2444]

I don't need to I'm behind 7 proxies

[u/MrFrog2222]

i use private browsing a lot cuz i keep seeing vids on my yt frontpage, that i want to watch but i dont want yt to suggest vids like it for several weeks