Incognito mode doesn't protect you: but THIS does!

hey guys this is me it's nick and welcome to my linux experiment your browser's private browsing or incognito mode is often seen as a magic bullet that allows you to stay safe and private and to keep your online search and browsing session hidden from prying eyes it's time to debunk that myth and explain what private browsing and incognito really does and what it doesn't okay but just let me let me just remove all of this because we're in august and it's actually super hot now that's much better so to begin if you care about your personal data and internet privacy you probably already know about start page but if you don't they're the most private search engine out there on the web they don't share any data they don't collect any they don't log anything you do and incidentally they also are the sponsor of this video this whole video and that's amazing because what they offer is basically way more private than incognito mode so let's see how all of that works so first why use a private browsing mode private browsing or incognito has been created to offer a more reassuring browsing experience and it has popped up on old browsers these days chrome firefox edge they all have access to it even good old internet explorer well not good just old internet explorer so with everything going on the internet like the collection of data on anything you do and the aggregation of this data into big comprehensive user profiles that are in turn made accessible for advertisers to serve you targeted ads it's understandable that users would want to find a more private and secure way of accessing various websites now the issue here is that incognito mode or private browsing mode doesn't prevent any of that data collection so let's see what it really does so private browsing mode or incognito mode actually doesn't make you incognito at all on the internet unfortunately all the data that you're exposing through your browsing is still completely accessible to the websites you visit to your internet service provider to the place you work at basically doesn't stop any of that data from getting out of your computer it also doesn't prevent getting malware or viruses that's another common misconception it's totally untrue the only thing private browsing does is browsing without saving cookies and browsing history on your computer or your phone that's it your browsing session just won't store anything locally on your computer or on your phone but all that data that is accessed by the websites you visit will still be completely available to these websites even in private mode so since this private browsing mode doesn't prevent any data collection then what steps can you take to actually prevent it from happening and there are two things you can do the first is moving to a safer more private search engine and i bet you didn't see that one coming but start page is one start page uses the google index and i can see you raising your hand back there in the back asking how then is it different from google well start page just doesn't serve you google results with another look and feel they have a multi-step process to anonymize your search query when you hit enter after you've typed your query it goes through two filters the first one are the premise servers they're owned by start page and can be selected to be located in the eu and they also remove ip addresses and other personal information they also anonymize any additional fields that might help you be identified by a third party once that's done the query is passed on to the second type of servers the cloud servers which are responsible for obtaining the search results they call for example on google to get the results and populate the web page before displaying it to you so this method ensures that none of your personal data gets passed on to another provider while you search on start page and it also means that the results you get aren't tailored to what you like or dislike on the internet there is no filter bubble here this is very safe because all that data that start pages stripped after your query is destroyed the premise servers don't keep it which means that even though start page got subpoenaed by governments before they just couldn't comply with the request because they don't have the data they can't provide it okay so that solves the issue of searching online no personal data leaking here but once you reach a website they're still gonna grab some personal information so what can you do here well i told you it was a two-step process and this is the second step it's anonymous view anonymous view is a start page only feature you can notice it right next to all search results what it does is allow you to browse an entire website without it knowing where you come from or who you are the website will only see start page's ip address instead of yours and information about your location is changed your language will always appear as english to the website and your clock will show the time as utc even your browser and operating system are hidden so the company can track that or just how the site looks or even the prices of their products depending on the system you're using anonymous view allows you to escape cookies and targeted ads recommendations or pricing it also lets you avoid fingerprinting which is a way for websites to establish a unique fingerprint from your time zone location ip address and browser and os information of course anonymous view might take a little bit longer to load the web page since it has to be passed to the start page servers first you also can't log into any account because that would completely defeat the point of anonymous view and you might also get the cookie notification banner pop up multiple times because well you can't save those cookies on your device now you might think of anonymous view as some kind of one-time vpn which it kinda is but it also has multiple advantages over any vpn that you could use for example a vpn cannot protect you from tracking or from fingerprinting because those techniques use javascript and javascript has access to the values from your browser no matter if you use a vpn or not anonymous view will actually pass false values to this javascript to actually let them have some information but it's not your information it's completely faked once which means that the website just doesn't have accurate information on you and can't use that to establish a broader profile of course you could also use a vpn and disable javascript but that will break half of the internet for you since most websites rely on it to display dynamic web pages these days now vpn will mask your ip address and your location and if you combine it with incognito mode or private browsing mode you also won't store on device your cookies or browsing history but it won't stop you from being fingerprinted wait no that that sounds super dirty websites will still get your device and your browser's fingerprint which means that they will be able to establish a broader profile they will be able to display targeted ads change how the site feels or looks or how the prices are even calculated and that's about it what you need to take home from this video is that incognito mode protects you from physical access to the device people that get your laptop won't be able to grab your cookies or your browsing history but that's about it a vpn will hide your ip address and location but will still leave you vulnerable to any sort of data collection or targeted ads start page will offer you a safer browsing experience by stripping all your personal information from any query you make when you search using this start page search engine an anonymous view will protect you from basically any website trying to establish a specific profile about you using your browser your os your computer or your browsing habits basically you get a pure form of the web which is not targeted or tailored to your own stuff or to what the website thinks that you're using so if privacy and browser safety are important to you well you know what to do so thanks to start page for sponsoring this video i hope you guys enjoyed it if you didn't stay to like and subscribe and turn on those pesky notifications and if you didn't like the video you can also dislike and tell me why in the comments so thank you guys for watching and i'll see you in the next one bye [Music] you

Channel: The Linux Experiment

Views: 18,401

Rating: 4.8259959 out of 5

Keywords: linux, elementary os, open source, distribution, linux distro, linux help, linux 2021, linux tutorial, anonymous view, private browsing, online privacy, stay private online, how to browse privately, startpage, startpage search engine, being anonymous online, alternatives to Google search, alternative search engines, is startpage good, is startpage better than, startpage is better, startpage search, startpage review, startpage privacy

Id: AZIzf5ucJ0U

Length: 8min 46sec (526 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021