If you have to share a computer either at home, work or school then you’ll soon realise that you leave a trace of your web history on the computer each time you use it – it’s not exactly secure web browsing. This can be quite annoying at times, if you’re trying to arrange a surprise, buy a gift then leaving a trail of web sites behind you can slightly give the surprise away.
There is of course even more serious side when so many of use the internet for lots of private stuff like banking, investments or research. Using a shared computer has alot of risks to it so most of the browsers are introducing features to deal with this.
Google’s Chrome browser has probably the most advanced of these features at the moment although there isn’t a lot in it with IE and Firefox both offering similar features. The privacy mode in Chrome is called Incognito mode and it can help your web browsing become a little more secure.
To enable Chrome’s Incognito mode just select a new incognito window from the file menu. Then all your web browsing is slightly more secure , no cookies are stored, no logons cached and history maintained on the PC you are using.
If you want to start this mode automatically follow this procedure.
- Right Click on the Chrome Shortcut on the desktop
- Click on Properties
- On the Shortcut – just add the following to the target line -incognito
(make sure you leave a space and add outside the inverted commas)
Then every time you start Chrome using this shortcut it will run in incognito mode. This will prevent any details of your browsing being left behind on your computer and all the cookies will be automatically removed. There are unfortunately many other traces of your web history so this is not totally secure web browsing but it is an important step.
Of course, it’s a long, long way from real secure web surfing, we still use HTTP which means your browsing is in clear text. Your browsing history and IP address are also stored on the web site you visit, on the ISP logs. But it is a start and at least can keep your PC holding a huge list of your web browsing.
