I feel like I'm the only one that remembers that incognito mode was only ever about keeping your browsing history private on the local machine, not anonymizing all your internet traffic.
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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People misunderstand the lawsuit so badly. It was about misleading statements made on the browser by Google while the company did other things to break those statements. It is NOT about them somehow secretly sophoning off browsing data, which they didn't do.
It literally tells you that when you open an incognito tab.
People are just both tech illiterate and regular illiterate. And instead of taking responsibility, blame someone else.
Exactly what you said. Personally I'd add "willfully" in front of each type of illiterate, but that's just me.
Well yeah, that’s all it ever was. The lawsuit was because of misleading/deceptive statements made by Google, which led some (intentionally misinformed) users to believe that Incognito Mode was more private than reality.
Basically, the company knew some users believed Incognito Mode hid their browsing activity. Not just from their local machine (via no logged site history, clearing cookies, etc), but also by hiding it from prying eyes like Google. Some users genuinely believed Incognito Mode was basically some sort of combination of Tor, degoogling, VPN, tracker-blocker, etc… And Google actively encouraged this incorrect belief, because they could continue to siphon off users’ data when they thought they weren’t being watched. The active encouragement of incorrect beliefs is what the lawsuit was about, not the data collection.
Did it ever change to not being about keeping your browsing history private on the local machine?
In the ancient days, before the early 2000s there were no user and account management in webbrowsers at all. You started the browser and when you were done you closed it. If you wanted to hide your traces you could manually delete your history. Remember at that time this was on "the family computer". So your wife or mother used the same machine and could find your history.
This was the situation when incognito mode was introduced, if you used the internet at that time it was perfectly reasonable, and you knew what it meant.
It just happened that a generation grew up who didn't know how it worked and they assumed it's different.
It's not going incognito from the browser and websites, it's going incognito from your computer and the other people who use it. Did people actually think incognito mode was some sort of vpn?
Yes, people are that stupid.
I always thought that incognito mode is just for porn browsing so it doesnt end up in the browser history.
People really think they go invisible with incognito?
I use private browsing just for the vibes :3 I like the sneaky burglar aesthetic
Does the splash screen not still explicitly explain that it doesn't make you invisible, it just means your browsing history is clear??
That disclaimer was actually a result of the lawsuit. It didn’t always say that. Google was sued for intentionally misleading users, by tacitly encouraging their misheld beliefs that it made them invisible. Basically, Google wanted to track users. And Google knew that some users trusted incognito mode way too much. And instead of correcting that, they actively misled users into believing that incognito mode was more secure. Because if users believed they were invisible, Google could continue to track them when they thought they weren’t being watched.
They got sued for those misleading statements, and lost. And now the splash screen specifically says that Incognito Mode doesn’t make you invisible.
It's great when you need to login somewhere on a borrowed device. Do need to log out the previous user, and your login won't linger after you're done either.
Or you search something technical which is way over the head of the device owner. Just keeping them safe from seeing "evil hacker stuff".
I'm surprised that this surprised people to begin with. The "You've gone Incognito" screen is very clear about what does or does not happen.
Maybe it's a naming issue. Would "self destruct mode", or "guest session" have been better?
I think guest/temporary session would have been better, especially since it's used that way for stuff like website testing and troubleshooting.
Oh you got it wrong
It SPECIFICALLY collects data when in incognito, that it wouldn't otherwise collect.