Cookie Mania And Private Browsing - Guest Post By Govind Rammurthy, eScan

The following is a guest post by Mr. Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan.


Do you know that your online activity is being tracked by the websites that you visit? All links you visit, the forms you submit, the credentials that you fill are not a secret always. The sites that you visit maintain a record of what you did last time on their site for months and years to come.

It is all done smartly through cookies. As per Wikipedia, cookies are reliable mechanism for websites to remember information (such as items in a shopping cart) or to record the user’s browsing activity like the buttons clicked, logging in, or the pages visited by the user months or even years ago. Cookies can also store confidential information such as Username and password, credit card number or an address.



When a user accesses a website with cookies enabled in his browser, a cookie is sent from the server where website is hosted to the browser and is stored on the local computer. Later, when that user goes back to the same website, the website will recognize the user because of the stored cookies with his information.These tracking cookies are also used to serve advertisements and various websites affiliated to numerous online advertising agencies will tailor the adverts or offers based on the choices you made on a different website.

To prevent your online activity details from being saved as cookies with the sites you visit all browsers offer incognito mode or Private browsing, whether you use Firefox, Google chrome or Internet Explorer latest versions, all give you an option to ‘turn on’ the Private browsing option or the ‘incognito mode’ whenever you desire.

Few benefits of Private Browsing or the Incognito Mode

1. Bought a gift online for your loved one? Your online purchases for the Gifts for birthdays or anniversary can be kept a secret by making the purchase in the incognito mode, so the surprise element can be maintained till the gift is delivered.

2. You can sign in to multiple Facebook Profiles or email accounts by the opening them in different tabs in private browsing or the incognito mode.

3. Visit sites without leaving a record or a trace of it – Looking for a Job on online portals? Do it without tipping off co-workers or friends in Private browsing.

4. Keep your site visits in wrap - - No record is maintained of the links or the sites visited by you in private browsing so no worries.

How to browse privately – Few shortcuts 

1. For Private browsing in Google chrome, open the browser and then click on CTRL+SHIFT+N, this will open a new incognito window.

2. If you are using Mozilla Firefox OR Internet Explorer, open the browser and click CTRL+SHIFT+P, it will open a new window for private browsing.

Please note that this Private browsing or incognito mode is available only in latest versions of the browsers.