

Ask HN: How does incognito/private browsing work? - errant_writer

In incognito&#x2F;private browsing mode:<p>If I log into my gmail and then do a search is that search still saved on Google&#x27;s servers?
Can a service like Google search tell if the browser I&#x27;m using is in incognito&#x2F;private browsing mode? 
What does the browser do? Does it remove all cookies&#x2F;cache information when I go into private browsing mode? Or does it keep all the cookies and cache data from regular browsing but just doesn&#x27;t save any new ones?<p>Thanks.
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datalist
> If I log into my gmail and then do a search is that search still saved on
> Google's servers?

Depends what you mean by "saved" but generally data will be processed on the
server-side in the same way as from a non-incognito browser.

> Can a service like Google search tell if the browser I'm using is in
> incognito/private browsing mode?

Not in a reliable fashion.

> What does the browser do? Does it remove all cookies/cache information when
> I go into private browsing mode? Or does it keep all the cookies and cache
> data from regular browsing but just doesn't save any new ones?

Neither, even though it may vary from browser to browser the general approach
is to create a second temporary clean browser instance, which is separate from
any other non-incognito instance.

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dudul
"You’ve gone incognito

Pages you view in incognito tabs won’t stick around in your browser’s history,
cookie store, or search history after you’ve closed all of your incognito
tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept. Learn more
about incognito browsing

Going incognito doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your internet
service provider, or the websites you visit."

I think this is pretty straightforward.

