Revisit flight-booking sites in in cognito
modeand you may get lower faresPrivate modecan trick some paywalled
sites but not the New York Times!The YouTube
app has a
handy
Incognito
option – but
the website
doesn’tBrowse Amazon freely without it storin g
and revealing your view ing history
Incognito mode
Discuss private-browsingtipsat http://www.facebook.com/webusermagazine 1 - 14 May 2019 51
Keep surprises secret
from lovedones
If you’ve been shopping for a gift for
someone on Amazon, the surprise is
likely to be spoiled the second they
visit the online stor e and see your
‘recently vieweditems’ and
‘recommendedfor you’ suggestions on
the homepage. Thanks a lot, Amazon!
Fortunately, you can prevent your
secr et purchase from being revealedby
using private-browsing mode– not just
on Amazon but other sites, too.
Because the modestopsyour browser
saving deta ils of the itemsyou’ve
searched for and viewed, the recipient
of your gift will be nonethe wiser. True,
you’ll need to sign into your account
when you proceed to the checkout, but
you’ll be signed out automatically as
you soon as you exit incognito.
StopYouTube
recommending videos
YouTube knows your viewing tastes
better than you do yourself, but its
endless recommendations for what
you should watch next can veer from
dist racting to embarrassing. The
YouTube mobile app now offers an
invaluable incognito modethat lets you
watch videos privately – just tap your
profile photo and choose ‘Turn on
Incogni to’, and nothing you view will be
stor ed until you turn the option off
again. On the YouTube website, the
processis fiddlier and involves clearing
then pausing your Watch and Search
hist ories. A much easier solution is to
switch to private-browsing modefor
a video session, where your viewing
activit y won’t be stor ed by YouTube or
used as the basis for recommendations.Save money onflight
and hotel prices
When you’re planning a holiday, it’s
frustrating to see that the co st of a
specific flight or a hotel’s room rate has
risen when you revi sit a travel-booking
website. This sneaky price hike may be
caused becookies that the site has
implanted in your browser, so itknows
who and where you are, and that you’re
very keen to finalise your travel
arrangements. By searching for flight s
and accommodation in private-
browsing mode, you’ll be working from
a clean slate and may find you’re
offered lower rates.We should point out that travel-
industry representa tives deny this trick
works and say that prices fluctuate
regardlessof cookies, but plenty of
travelle rs have found otherwise, so it ’s
certainl y worth a try.Readmore articles
onpaywalledsites
Many newspaper websites now lock
their content behind subscription
paywalls as an alternative source of
revenue to advertising. However, some
titles – for example, the Washington
Post ( http://www.washingtonpost.com) – let
you read a limited number of articles
for free each month before the paywall
kicks in. Once you reach that limit, it’s
often possible to reset the meter and
read more articles by viewing the site in
incognito mode. Not the New York
Times, though, which isnow wise to
this trick and detects when you try to
bypassits paywall in private mode.When you switch to private-browsing
mode, all your extensions – including
your adbloc ker – are automatically
disabled. This prevents data from
being saved to your computer, but itBLOCK ADS IN PRIVAT E-BROWSING MODE
also leaves you exposed to annoying
and intrusive adverts. A Firefox
add-on called Incogni to Adbloc ker
(bit.ly/inc ogni to474) solves this
problem by overridingyour
browser’s settings to continue
working when you open a new
private window, blockingall ads on
pages, as well as unwanted trackers.
In Chrome, you can set your
preferred ad bloc ker to run in
incognito modeby going to
chrome:/ /extensions, clicking Details
next to the add-on and choosing
‘Allow in in cognito’.