These additional features, for better or worse, blur the limitations of private browsing and potentially shift users’ expectations. Making sure that users understand what they are getting out of private browsing has become increasingly important, as a few browsers, such as Firefox, Brave, and Opera, have decided to add features to private browsing to mitigate web tracking. However, having a feature that works as intended does not necessarily mean that users actually know about it, understand what it does, or use it correctly.

Technically, this is achieved by storing everything related to browsing, including the cache and history, in the RAM and wiping it out when the private browsing windows is closed. The promise made to the user is that when the private windows are closed, no trace will be left on the computer. Private Browsing, also known as InPrivate in Internet Explorer and Incognito mode in Google Chrome, is a special mode where the browser doesn’t record the browsing activity on the local device. This post looks at how and why people are using the private browsing mode.

Duckduckgo incognito mode