How to run any browser incognito mode?

New to Puppy and have questions? Start here

Moderator: Forum moderators

User avatar
mikeslr
Posts: 2968
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:08 pm
Has thanked: 179 times
Been thanked: 924 times

Why would anyone bother running incognito mode?

Post by mikeslr »

No offense, JASpup, and I apologize for not butting in early; "real-world" concerns took precedent. But, the existence and length of this thread suggest that being able to use incognito mode is somehow important.
In a recent post Mike Walsh pointed out that Google-Chromes deprecated Incognito mode 5 years ago. viewtopic.php?p=9923#p9923. Maybe they disguised that condition. I didn’t know. :roll:
Then, again, I didn’t use it. I'm the only one who uses my computers and I configure all my web-browsers to delete cookies --indeed everything-- when they close. AFAIK, incognito mode offered nothing more. Even in incognito mode “Chrome will remember cookies, site data, and permissions granted while you’re browsing, but this information is deleted upon closing the incognito tab.” Of course, use google-search or any other google-app while in incognito mode and you might as well not be. Access any site, and its publisher and advertisers knows you are there.

Occasionally it is important to me --such as when accessing an online bank-- is that what I am doing is not available to 3rd-parties and especially the outlaws inhabiting the web phishing for identities and spreading malware.

Most of what incognito mode's name inaccurately give it the impression of doing can be accomplished by host-files, see http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 21#1008521 and as Terry H pointed out in the post following that one, using Menu>Internet>Pup-Advert-Blocker is an easy (albeit less personalized) way to implement that.

Additional protection can be implemented using addons/extension. The attached screenshot shows only a few of many available.

Some of the many extensions available
Some of the many extensions available
Extensions.png (99.95 KiB) Viewed 723 times

uBlock Origin and Ghostery have been recommended by Puppy Fans. I'm familiar with Avg, Avast and Avira from my XP days as reputable companies combating malware. I mention them here because they advertise having anti-phising components. I wasn't familiar with Adguard but it's website advises:

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/adguard/
## What AdGuard AdBlocker does:
★ Blocks all ads: video ads (includes YouTube adblock), rich media advertising, unwanted pop-ups (popup blocker), banners and text ads (includes Facebook adblock)
★ Speeds up page loading and saves bandwidth, thanks to the missing ads and pop up windows
★ Protects your privacy by blocking common third-party tracking systems
★ Blocks many spyware, adware and dialer installers
★ Protects you from malware and phishing
## What are the advantages over Adblock or AdBlock Plus?
★ AdGuard ad blocker is really fast and lightweight. It uses half as much memory as other popular solutions: Adblock, Adblock Plus, and even outperforms uBlock Adblocker in some tests.
★ AdGuard can handle most of the anti-adblock scripts. You won't have to turn off the ad blocker any more to be able to visit the websites that are using such scripts.
★ AdGuard is simply better looking and modern (in our opinion).

It notes that Adguard currently has 8,326,360 users, 2415 of whom have taken the time to rate it giving it a 4.6 out of five star rating.

Last edited by mikeslr on Sun Nov 15, 2020 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6164
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 796 times
Been thanked: 1985 times

Re: How to run any browser incognito mode?

Post by mikewalsh »

I used to use Ghostery all the time. They then performed a major core/GUI 'overhaul' a couple of years ago, and it all went to hell in a handbasket, very quickly....the company had been bought out, and the new owners wanted to take it in a totally different direction. And not for the better...

After which, I moved to uBlock Origin for quite a while. I discovered AdGuard back in the early to middle part of this year, and have been with it to date. Lightweight, yes; low user of resources, yes; very, very good at what it does.....most definitely!

Mike. ;)

s243a
Posts: 501
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2019 7:29 pm
Has thanked: 90 times
Been thanked: 37 times

Re: Why would anyone bother running incognito mode?

Post by s243a »

mikeslr wrote: Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:39 pm

No offense, JASpup, and I apologize for not butting in early; "real-world" concerns took precedent. But, the existence and length of this thread suggest that being able to use incognito mode is somehow important.
In a recent post Mike Walsh pointed out that Google-Chromes deprecated Incognito mode 5 years ago. viewtopic.php?p=9923#p9923. Maybe they disguised that condition. I didn’t know. :roll:
Then, again, I didn’t use it. I'm the only one who uses my computers and I configure all my web-browsers to delete cookies --indeed everything-- when they close. AFAIK, incognito mode offered nothing more. Even in incognito mode “Chrome will remember cookies, site data, and permissions granted while you’re browsing, but this information is deleted upon closing the incognito tab.” Of course, use google-search or any other google-app while in incognito mode and you might as well not be. Access any site, and its publisher and advertisers knows you are there.

incognito mode expresses the intent of privacy, and actions to circumvent it could violate privacy law. It's true that it doesn't provide people with as much protection as some think or at least use to think but it does offer some protection. Anyway, are you sure it's deprecated?
https://support.google.com/chrome/answe ... ktop&hl=en

The most important thing I think that incognito mode does is provides some protection against XSS attacks:

There are primarily two kinds of XSS-Attacks: Persistent and ad-hoc.

A private Browsing session will protect you from ad-hoc XSS attacks, but not from persistent attacks.

A persistent XSS works by an attacker injecting script-code somewhere into the sensitive page, this could be done by sending you a prepared message on the platform, or by some other means of injecting data into the storage of the sensitive page. When you log into the sensitive page to view some data, the injected data will be loaded by the server and transferred to your browser and will be executed if the site is vulnerable. An example would be a prepared message in an online-banking transaction. The attacker would send you a real transaction and the message-part would contain harmful script. No other page is involved so you cannot protect yourself against this, only the page-owner can.

https://security.stackexchange.com/a/196147

combine this with fake browser signatures and blocking third party cookies, I would say that it most certainly enhances your privacy. As a test test log into facebook and visit the site:
https://www.quora.com/

See of the site shows your facebook on the top right of the screen. Try the same thing in private browsing mode and see if you still see your facebook on the quora site. So sure, there are ways to circumvent this and maybe advertisers can do this if they are able to run javascript on each site you visit via third party adds or maybe some underhanded site (or browser) shares information without your permission. However, if the only info they can gather is a generic browser signature then perhaps they don't know much about you.

Occasionally it is important to me --such as when accessing an online bank-- is that what I am doing is not available to 3rd-parties and especially the outlaws inhabiting the web phishing for identities and spreading malware.

Most of what incognito mode's name inaccurately give it the impression of doing can be accomplished by host-files, see http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 21#1008521 and as Terry H pointed out in the post following that one, using Menu>Internet>Pup-Advert-Blocker is an easy (albeit less personalized) way to implement that.

Additional protection can be implemented using addons/extension. The attached screenshot shows only a few of many available.Extensions.png
uBlock Origin and Ghostery have been recommended by Puppy Fans. I'm familiar with Avg, Avast and Avira from my XP days as reputable companies combating malware. I mention them here because they advertise having anti-phising components. I wasn't familiar with Adguard but it's website advises:

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/adguard/
## What AdGuard AdBlocker does:
★ Blocks all ads: video ads (includes YouTube adblock), rich media advertising, unwanted pop-ups (popup blocker), banners and text ads (includes Facebook adblock)
★ Speeds up page loading and saves bandwidth, thanks to the missing ads and pop up windows
★ Protects your privacy by blocking common third-party tracking systems
★ Blocks many spyware, adware and dialer installers
★ Protects you from malware and phishing
## What are the advantages over Adblock or AdBlock Plus?
★ AdGuard ad blocker is really fast and lightweight. It uses half as much memory as other popular solutions: Adblock, Adblock Plus, and even outperforms uBlock Adblocker in some tests.
★ AdGuard can handle most of the anti-adblock scripts. You won't have to turn off the ad blocker any more to be able to visit the websites that are using such scripts.
★ AdGuard is simply better looking and modern (in our opinion).

It notes that Adguard currently has 8,326,360 users, 2415 of whom have taken the time to rate it giving it a 4.6 out of five star rating.

Yes, incognito mode isn't sufficient on it's own but be careful with third party aps because it means that thre is one more entity that you need to trust. For instance there was a bad version of uBlock origin (perhaps not the initial developer) that didn't provide the privacy/adblocking protection that people thought.

User avatar
JASpup
Posts: 1653
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 10:52 am
Location: U.S.A.
Has thanked: 70 times
Been thanked: 89 times

Re: How to run any browser incognito mode?

Post by JASpup »

dancytron wrote: Sun Nov 15, 2020 2:47 pm

In this case, just to use my firefox bookmarks in Chrome.

It's handy to be able to access the file system in the browser for lots of things...

Ok. It works great. I just learned double-clicking (XFCE) on a launcher opens a new tab with your launch page, which substitutes a home page configuration if you don't mind a new tab each home trek. File:/ for menus works well too.

On the Whiz-Neophyte Bridge
Linux Über Alles
Disclaimer: You may not be reading my words as posted.

User avatar
JASpup
Posts: 1653
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 10:52 am
Location: U.S.A.
Has thanked: 70 times
Been thanked: 89 times

Re: Why would anyone bother running incognito mode?

Post by JASpup »

mikeslr wrote: Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:39 pm

Then, again, I didn’t use it. I'm the only one who uses my computers and I configure all my web-browsers to delete cookies --indeed everything-- when they close. AFAIK, incognito mode offered nothing more. Even in incognito mode “Chrome will remember cookies, site data, and permissions granted while you’re browsing, but this information is deleted upon closing the incognito tab.” Of course, use google-search or any other google-app while in incognito mode and you might as well not be. Access any site, and its publisher and advertisers knows you are there.

I've tried to pride myself on being technology-aware, but not oriented.

Here's that perspective:

Merely by how I see ads in browsers can I tell that the teeth of all the major sites we all visit run deep. I stopped short one day when I saw ads in a different Windows user in the same browser another user browsed relevant pages. How can anyone see that? If a computer really had multiple users, why would they target more than one like they're the same?

Likewise, in incognito and private browsing modes, you can track for yourself cookies and history that aren't being stored. If any page has access to that data, as so many sites boldly ask for, you know not having them there is saving your privacy.

Incognito offers more. There are simply far fewer cookies and history stored throughout browsing, before you close shop.

On the Whiz-Neophyte Bridge
Linux Über Alles
Disclaimer: You may not be reading my words as posted.

User avatar
JASpup
Posts: 1653
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 10:52 am
Location: U.S.A.
Has thanked: 70 times
Been thanked: 89 times

Re: How to run any browser incognito mode?

Post by JASpup »

I used Ghostery long ago. I didn't remember the reason I stopped so just checked it out again.

two errors:

The first is an inability to load extension INCOGNITO. :P

The second is compatibility, which is probably not Slacko6 but 32bit Chrome 48.

On the Whiz-Neophyte Bridge
Linux Über Alles
Disclaimer: You may not be reading my words as posted.

Post Reply

Return to “Beginners Help”