As someone else put it, it's for making sure your wife doesn't get suspicious of the weird ads you're getting, and when she checks the browser history it's clean.

Meanwhile Google, your ISP, and the NSA all know you're looking at freaky old lady bondage porn.

[–] Gork@lemm.ee 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes but I trust the NSA to safeguard the integrity of the National Dick Pic Database. I can't say the same for my ISP.

[–] psmgx@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

The NDPD is a strategic resource and there is little doubt it is guarded jealously by the boys at Ft. Meade

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago

Except some sites seem to use your IP, so if you're both using the same WiFi, you're going to get ads for other party. And for anyone else who used the same WiFi, too

[–] 0ops@lemm.ee 70 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's handy when you need to make sure that someone else can access a url ok without having to sign in to the website or anything. If you can immediately see the page in incognito mode without signing in, they'll have no problem

[–] not_so_handsome_jack@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

I remember having to use an incognito browser for testing at work one time, and it felt very wrong to pull it up on my work laptop instead of the personal laptop.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The pile of crap that is docusign will only work for me in incognito mode.

I contacted support and they suggested I tried it and it works, so they closed the case

🤦‍♂️

[–] 0ops@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

That's a good trouble-shooting step, but it's not a solution. That's some bullshit, sorry that happened. Maybe try clearing your browser cache and cookies if you haven't already? Basically my reasoning is if it works in incognito mode and only in that mode, then there's probably some saved state that the website is getting snagged on (state that a new incognito window wouldn't have).

[–] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 38 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use it to get around website article limits when they try to force me to sign up.

[–] JustUseMint@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

Websites with actual web devs block and track usage with ip instead of cookies/cache, nothing a vpn can't stop tho. More reliable to is to the way back machine on archive.org. Can also use a browsers reader mode to get around it too sometimes.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And even then, those sites can easily be retrieved by someone committed to finding them

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago

And like the traffic at home through Adguard Home I see logs. More competent networks elsewhere will certainly be able to see what you're doing.

[–] Marin_Rider@aussie.zone 5 points 9 months ago

back in the day (before chrome or incognito mode) I used to manually delete specific history items, individual cookies and temporary internet files one by one to leave no trace, while not making anything look suspicious, all so my nosy brother wouldn't stumble on any evidence and use it to mock me