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I use online banking, typically in an incognito window. I also use other, less important accounts in incognito windows because I don't want websites to be tracking me across the Internet (tracking cookies). I've read that for security purposes, logging out of websites is not necessary if you're the only person with physical access to your computer. If I always close the incognito window, is actually logging out of the website beforehand necessary?
1You are aware that incognito, is simply a session that is trashed when the last tab is closed, it does not actually prevent websites from tracking you. Facebook would within an incognito session be able to track you, if you allowed Facebook's cookies, incognito is for local privacy wasn't designed to stop tracking cookies. – Ramhound – 2018-08-30T04:11:52.640
What @Ramhound said is mostly correct, however some browsers have cookies off by default for incognito mode. Firefox (iirc) has only 3rd party cookies (mostly what trackers use) off by default in incognito mode. What's important is what your actual settings say, there is no general answer and "incognito mode" does, all the memes aside, not make you magically invisible to everyone while you're browsing. There won't be a history locally on your PC, but even your employer (for example) or others on the same network could still get your browsing history. – confetti – 2018-08-30T04:14:01.900
@confetti - I guess my point is that nearly all of the incognito modes work the same, the history is trashed once the final tab is closed. As you point out, what your ISP or employer can or cannot do, does not change by simply using incognito. You would have to combine incognito mode with a proxy and/or VPN, disable practically all cookies, and even then you run into the problem of the VPN/Proxy now tracking your habits. Which then leads you into using TOR browser, while connected to multiple VPNs that log nothing, within a VM that is trashed at every power on. Chicken and an Egg situation – Ramhound – 2018-08-30T04:17:34.540
@Ramhound It really depends on what OP is trying to achieve in the end and who OP wants to hide from. In your scenario one might still be able to recover data from the harddrive, or the RAM. To simply defeat website trackers, NoScript is a good add-on that disables javascript among some other things that trackers usually use. I'd also like to rise awareness of LSO Cookies
– confetti – 2018-08-30T04:33:10.200Thank you for your thoughtful responses! I have three objectives here. 1) Save a little time by just closing incognito windows instead of logging out of websites in incognito and then closing the incognito windows. 2) Not have to worry about someone else being able to log into my account after I'm done using it. 3) Reduce the information that advertising tracking cookies have about me. – S. Park – 2018-08-30T12:20:08.680
@confetti Thank you for including the link on Flash cookies. To clarify, if I have Flash disabled on my browser, I can prevent these cookies from being installed, right? – S. Park – 2018-08-30T12:21:50.743
@S.Park Without adobe flash those cookies can't be installed (AFAIK). You should check your browser settings, I don't know about chrome but with Firefox you can control exactly how cookies are handled both in normal windows and incognito windows. The default behaviour is that upon exit of private windows the cookies will vanish. Trackers use more than just cookies to identify you, though. Take a lot at ScriptSafe for chrome, it has a LOT of "anti-fingerprinting" features.
– confetti – 2018-08-30T12:31:46.880@confetti Thank you very much for getting back to me. I will definitely check out Scriptsafe. – S. Park – 2018-08-30T20:58:29.573