Keep your search history private
Using Private Browsing or Incognito mode means no one else can see what you’ve searched for or viewed on the internet. Good news for secret shopping!
Ever browsed the web looking to buy something then, a few days later, seen adverts popping up all over the internet for the item you were looking for? It can be annoying and makes it very difficult to shop online for birthday presents, or even items for yourself you don’t necessarily want others to know about.
These targeted adverts are a result of cookies – little bits of data left on your computer when you visit web pages. While you can stop cookies being saved to your computer, doing this will mean that you won’t be able to save any usernames or passwords for websites or even leave items in an online shopping basket before coming back later to buy them.
Thankfully, there’s an easy solution: switch to Private Browsing or Incognito mode. With this setting activated, your website history and viewed items are erased as soon as you close your browser window. It also prevents cookies from being saved on your machine, so there’s no fear of targeted adverts appearing while you’re browsing.
It’s simple to switch on Private Browsing or Incognito mode:
Have an iphone or ipad? Open Safari and tap the icon that looks like two squares; one on top of the other. This lets you open a new tab. Select Private from the bottom left-hand corner and you will start a Private tab. On a Mac, open Safari and select File from the top left-hand corner. Now click New Private Browsing window.
Using Chrome? Open the browser and tap the three vertical dots on the left-hand top or bottom corner. Select New Incognito Window from the list. If you have a Windows 10 PC and are using the Microsoft Edge browser, just open the browser and select the three horizontal dots, followed by New Inprivate window. Or if you have an older version of Windows and you’re using Internet Explorer, open the Settings menu (depicted by a cog in the top right-hand corner). Select Safety and then Inprivate browsing from the options displayed.
Mozilla Firefox works in a similar way. Just head to File in the top left-hand corner and select New Private Window.