Incognito mode on Safari: Everything You Need to Know
Whether you’re on a Mac or an iPhone, there are times when you’d like to make your browsing activities unknown to anyone, especially if you occasionally share your device. And what better way to do that than your operating system’s in-house browser, Safari?
Yes, Safari’s Private Mode or Incognito Mode erases your browsing history the moment you exit the app, including the addresses visited, cookies, forms, etc. However, there’s only so much the browser can do to keep your internet activity private.
Here, we discuss how Safari works on iPhone and how you can completely clear your browsing history after exiting the app. Read on below to find out how.
How Does Private or Incognito Mode Work?
When you use Safari on your iPhone or Mac, the app automatically saves all sorts of data from the sites you visit. It’s the data from these sites that the app utilizes to suggest web addresses and search queries when you begin typing in the address/search bar next time.
Also, when anyone goes to History on the browser, they can see all the sites you’ve visited. This can be mortifying if you’ve researched something you want to keep secret from friends, colleagues, or family.
Even worse, Safari saves passwords and usernames (if permitted) so that you don’t have to type them again when next you visit. You don’t need telling what this means, as anybody can open your browser and log into your account without inputting any passwords.
These problems are why Incognito or Private Mode exists. It deletes all your history and, even better, doesn’t sync your browsing activities to other devices linked to your iCloud account.
How to Enable Incognito Mode on iPhone and Mac
Incognito Mode is relatively easy to enter on Safari, regardless of your device. To open enter incognito mode on an iPhone,
- Launch Safari
- Tap the horizontal three dots at the bottom-right corner of the screen
- From the menu that comes up next, select New Incognito Tab
That’s it! You should enter incognito mode immediately. On the other hand, if you’re on a MacBook,
- Open Safari
- Click File from the top menu on the browser
- Next, select New Private Window from the options
- Alternatively, press Shift + Command + N to open a new incognito tab
What Are The Shortcomings of Safari Incognito Mode?
As suggested earlier, there’s only so much Safari’s Incognito Mode can do to hide your browsing activities. The first reason is that it can’t hide your location or online activities from advertising companies and your ISP. That’s the job of a VPN.
Secondly, a determined infiltrator can still check your browsing history on a MacBook even after using incognito mode. They can do this via a command line entered in Terminal, a utility on Mac.
But don’t fret if you’re a Mac user keen on clearing their browsing history. The steps below will help you delete your browsing history completely, even on Terminal.
To do that,
- Go to the Utilities folder on your Mac
- Select Terminal from the options
- In the Terminal window, enter the command line: dscacheutil -flushcache
- Press Enter key on your keyboard to execute the command.
This command line will clear your browsing history and cookies once entered.
Final Notes
There you go! That’s all you need to know about Incognito Mode on Safari. Many other browsers also have the feature embedded; thus, you might want to try them out to see if the feature works better there than what you have on Safari.
