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Browser Private Mode – Not so Private

July 22, 2019

You would think that if a developer called something private (not a military rank) it would mean that your information is safe from snooping. Not so. Since we do digital forensics, we have known for a long time that we can still recover some information even if "private" mode is used. Ars Technica reported that a forthcoming research paper from researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Pennsylvania indicates that Google and Facebook may possibly be tracking your porn history. Using Incognito mode doesn't help.

Researchers analyzed 22,000 porn websites. Google tracking data was found on 74% of the sites and Facebook tracking data was on 10% of the sites. Software giant Oracle's Web tracking code was discovered on 24% of the analyzed sites. The report states that using Incognito/Private/InPrivate mode in browsers does not leave any data on the user's computer, but the reality is more complicated as Ars Technia noted. We can confirm that some artifacts are still on the user's computer even if Incognito/Private/InPrivate mode is used. I should mention that the issue is not isolated to porn sites, but any website visited. Perhaps the researchers needed an excuse for their respective employers to lift the firewall restrictions.

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