Incognito mode hides your browsing from other people who use your device - and very little else. Here is what private browsing actually does, who can still see your activity and when you need a stronger tool.
Every major browser has one: Chrome calls it Incognito, Safari and Firefox call it Private Browsing, Edge calls it InPrivate. They all make the same narrow promise - no local record of your browsing history - and most of us read far more into it than the small print says. This guide sets out exactly what incognito mode hides, what stays visible and how to pick a stronger tool when a private window is not enough.
Last checked: 17 August 2026. Private browsing behaviour changes as browsers update - we recheck this guide against the official documentation when it moves.
What incognito mode actually hides
A private window keeps no lasting record on your device. When you close your last incognito window, your browser deletes:
- Your browsing history. Pages you visited are not added to your history and will not surface in the address bar later.
- Cookies and site data. Cookies still work while the window is open - sign-ins and shopping baskets would break without them - but they are wiped when the session ends, so nothing carries over to your next visit.
- Form entries and searches. Things you type are not saved for autofill.
Two things survive on purpose: files you download stay on your device (only the entry in your downloads list is cleared) and any bookmarks you save are kept.
Because a private window starts a completely fresh session, it has a useful side effect: it does not share cookies with your normal windows, so you can sign into a second account without logging out of the first.
What incognito mode does not hide
Everything above happens on your device. The moment your browsing leaves your device, incognito mode changes nothing. Chrome's own incognito screen is upfront about this: your activity might still be visible to the websites you visit, your employer or school and your internet service provider (ISP).
- Your IP address. Every website you visit sees the address your connection comes from, and that address reveals your approximate location.
- Your internet provider. Your ISP can still see which sites you connect to and when - it knows you visited amazon.co.uk at 9pm, though on secure connections it cannot usually see which pages you looked at.
- Your employer or school. Anything you browse on their network passes through their equipment, private window or not. On a managed work laptop, the organisation can typically see far more.
- Accounts you sign into. Log into Google, Facebook or Amazon inside a private window and that service records your activity against your account exactly as normal. The window is private; the account is not.
Who can see what in incognito mode?
The clearest way to think about private browsing is not "hidden or not hidden" but "hidden from whom". Here is the full picture:
| Who | Can they see your activity? | What they can see |
|---|---|---|
| Someone else who uses your device | No - this is what incognito is for | Nothing once your windows are closed, apart from files you downloaded and bookmarks you saved |
| Websites you visit | Yes | Your IP address, your approximate location and your device's characteristics - plus everything you do while signed in |
| Your internet service provider | Yes | Which sites you connect to and when, though not usually the exact pages on a secure connection |
| Your employer or school | Yes, on their network or devices | Sites you visit through their wifi; on a managed work device, potentially much more |
| Services you stay signed into (Google, Meta, Amazon) | Yes | Your activity on their sites and on sites that use their tools, tied to your account |
| UK police and security services | Yes, with legal authorisation | Connection records your provider can be required to keep for up to 12 months |
Why do so many people misunderstand private browsing?
In a 2018 study by the University of Chicago and Leibniz University Hannover, 460 people in the US read the notices private modes display and then answered questions about what the mode does. More than half (56.3%) believed Google would not save their searches while they were signed into a Google account. 37% thought an employer could not track them on a work network. Around a quarter believed websites could not see their IP address. None of those is true - and the participants had just read the warnings.
The confusion is understandable. The names - incognito, private - suggest invisibility, the spy icon plays along and the small print underneath is easy to skim. The mode is named for the one thing it does well, privacy on your own device, and we naturally hear a bigger promise.
Browsers have started saying this more plainly themselves. Chrome's incognito screen was rewritten in 2024 and now tells you upfront that going incognito "won't change how data is collected by websites you visit... including Google". The honesty is welcome - it is also easy to skim past, which is exactly how the misunderstanding survives.
When incognito mode is the right tool
Private browsing gets typecast as a tool for hiding something embarrassing. Most real uses are more mundane:
- Gift shopping on a shared device. Your partner will not find the jewellery shop in the history or watch your searches resurface as suggestions.
- Borrowed and public computers. Check your email on a friend's laptop or a hotel machine: closing the window signs you out and leaves nothing behind in the browser.
- Running two accounts at once. A personal and a work email, or two profiles on the same site, each in its own window.
- Seeing a page without your history's influence. Search results and prices arrive less personalised, because the session starts with no cookies - though sites still know roughly where you are from your IP address.
- Checking how a page looks signed out. Useful for your own public profiles, shared documents and cookie-based paywalls.
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Why you still see targeted ads after browsing in incognito
The unsettling moment - you only searched for it in a private window, yet the ads found you - almost always has a mundane explanation, and it is rarely your microphone. Four things carry on working in incognito:
- Accounts you were signed into. Sign into Google or Facebook inside the private window and your searches and visits are saved to the account, which is exactly what advertising then draws on.
- Trackers built into the pages themselves. Tools like the Meta pixel still load on the sites that carry them - a private window does not remove the tracking already built into a page.
- Your browser's signature. Screen size, fonts and settings combine into a fingerprint that identifies your browser without needing cookies at all. Private windows barely change it. Of the mainstream browsers, only Safari applies dedicated fingerprinting protection in private mode by default, and Tor is the tool built to defeat it properly.
- Your phone's apps. Incognito is a browser feature. The advertising ID that apps use lives in your phone's settings and is untouched by it - you manage that separately, under Privacy settings on both Android and iPhone.
None of this is an accident: detailed attention is worth money, which is why your online behaviour is valuable to the companies watching it. A private window does not change the economics - it only cleans the copy kept on your own machine.
Is private browsing different in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge?
The core behaviour - delete the local record when the last window closes - is near identical everywhere. The extra protections differ:
- Chrome has blocked third-party cookies by default in Incognito since 2020, but offers no fingerprinting protection. Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N.
- Safari goes furthest: known trackers are blocked, tracking codes are stripped out of links and its advanced fingerprinting protection is switched on by default in Private Browsing, which can also lock behind Face ID.
- Firefox blocks tracker content and suspected fingerprinting scripts in private windows, on top of the cookie isolation it now applies to all windows. Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+P.
- Edge blocks third-party cookies InPrivate and keeps your chosen tracking-prevention level running (Balanced, unless you change it). Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N.
On iPhone the differences shrink, because every browser there - Chrome included - runs on Apple's underlying engine.
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When incognito mode is not enough: VPNs, Tor and tracker blocking
Pick the tool by naming who you want to hide from:
- Other people on your device - incognito mode is enough. That is the job it does reliably.
- Your internet provider, or whoever runs the wifi - a reputable VPN hides your traffic and your IP address from the network. Be clear-eyed about the trade: the VPN company can see what your ISP no longer can, so you are moving trust rather than removing it, and a VPN does nothing about the accounts you sign into.
- The websites themselves - Tor Browser routes your traffic through three volunteer relays and is built to resist fingerprinting. It is noticeably slower than normal browsing, and it is the strongest anonymity a mainstream tool offers.
- Everyday ad trackers - turn up your browser's built-in protection (Strict tracking protection in Firefox or Edge, advanced protection in Safari) or add a reputable blocker: uBlock Origin on Firefox, uBlock Origin Lite on Chrome.
The layers stack. A private window, a tracker blocker and a VPN each solve a different problem, and none of them replaces the others.
Can incognito browsing be traced afterwards?
On the device itself, closing every private window removes the browser's record, though forensics researchers have shown traces can linger elsewhere on a computer - in places like the system's DNS cache or swap file - until they are overwritten. The records that matter, though, were never on your device:
- Your provider's records. Under the Investigatory Powers Act, UK providers can be required to keep internet connection records - which service you connected to and when, not the exact pages - for up to 12 months. Police and security services can access them, under strict legal conditions.
- Workplace records. Employers can log traffic on their own networks and devices, and using a private window at work does not create any right to privacy on those systems.
- The services' records. Websites and platforms keep their own logs of who connected, and courts can order them to hand those over.
None of this is aimed at ordinary browsing, and none of it should alarm you. It is simply why incognito mode is not a legal shield - the local history was only ever one copy among several.
The bottom line: what incognito mode actually hides
Incognito mode hides your browsing from other people who use your device. That is the whole promise - kept reliably, and genuinely useful. It does not hide your activity from the websites you visit, your internet provider, your employer or the services you sign into, and it does not make you anonymous.
Use it for shared devices, second accounts and cleaner searches. Reach for a VPN or Tor when what you want to hide is on the network rather than on your machine. And for the fuller picture of what companies already know about you - private windows or not - see our guide to your digital footprint.
Frequently Asked Questions About Incognito Mode
Can someone see my incognito history?
On your device, no - once every private window is closed there is no history for another user to find, though downloads and bookmarks you chose to keep remain. Away from your device it was never hidden: your internet provider, a work network and the websites you visited could all see the activity as it happened.
Does incognito mode hide my IP address?
No. Websites see your IP address and approximate location in a private window exactly as they normally would. A VPN or Tor changes what they see. Safari users with a paid iCloud+ subscription can also switch on Private Relay, which hides your address from websites while you browse.
Can my employer see what I browse in incognito?
If you are on a work network or a work-managed device, assume yes. A private window only stops the browser keeping a local record - it does not affect the network's own logs, and managed devices can be set up to see a great deal more.
Do cookies get deleted in incognito mode?
Yes, at the end of the session. Cookies work while the window is open so that sites function normally, and they are deleted when you close your last private window. Chrome and Edge also block most third-party cookies from the start in private windows, which cuts cross-site tracking during the session too.
Can the police see incognito browsing?
Not from your browser, which keeps no record. In the UK, internet providers can be required to keep internet connection records - which services you connected to, not the exact pages - for up to 12 months, and the police can access those records under strict legal conditions.
Does incognito mode stop targeted ads?
No. Advertising follows your accounts and your browser's fingerprint more than your local history, and both keep working in a private window. Signing out, turning up your browser's tracking protection or adding a reputable blocker does far more to reduce targeted ads than incognito mode does.
Is incognito mode the same as a VPN?
No - they solve different problems. Incognito mode stops your browser keeping a local record of your session, while a VPN hides your traffic and IP address from the network carrying it. Neither stops the accounts you sign into recording your activity, and a VPN provider can itself see the traffic your internet provider no longer can.