this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Kinda morbidly fascinating to see Google devolve into a horrible bucket of shit

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Partially true. If you don't close your incognito window, the third party cookies stick around, but they're not associated with your other profile(s). But, as soon as you do close your incognito window, they're gone.

Your ISP gets the traffic, there's no way around that. But, if you're using SSL (and virtually all websites now use SSL) the ISP doesn't see the contents of the pages, just the hostnames.

Google gets some of the traffic too, but they pinky swear not to associate it with your other account. I'm pretty sure there would be an employee revolt inside Google if they just ignored the incognito window and associated your incognito data with your main account. It wouldn't be a technical challenge to collect your incognito data and know what account it belongs with, but if they ever did that and it leaked it would be a huge scandal. Google is so profitable that they have no need to risk that.

Also, Incognito only partially protects you against people with whom you share the computer. Any files you download will still be there. Also, if you leave the incognito window open, it's there for whoever else uses your computer.

[–] cactus@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mate.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/7/23823878/google-privacy-tracking-incognito-mode-lawsuit-summary-judgment-denied

$5 billion Google lawsuit over ‘Incognito mode’ tracking moves a step closer to trial / Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Google’s push for a summary judgment in a lawsuit over the way it tracked internet activity even after users switched to ‘Incognito mode.’

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

There's a difference between "tracked internet activity" and "associated that internet activity with the non-incognito profile".

Of course they "tracked internet activity". The Internet breaks if you disable cookies, so incognito mode has cookies. Cookies track Internet activity.

We all know it is for looking up porn and checking on my favorite al-qaeda site. I do wonder if my google account really is disconnected from the incog window or if I need to logout first and restart the browser.

Also, if you leave the incognito window open, it’s there for whoever else uses your computer.

Well, yah. This is true for anything. Close your damn windows when you are done.