Although it has long promoted the "Incognito Mode" of Chrome browser, it is said that engineers of the company have teased themselves as early as 2018. A conversation with an Google engineer shared by Bloomberg shows that the company needs to change the icon and name of the "traceless mode" at the same time to regain the wrong impression it leaves on users.
The core problem is that ordinary users do not have such in-depth understanding of technology, so when they see the name and icon of "traceless mode", they mistakenly think that the browser can protect privacy more than the actual situation.
Then another employee responded to the “Guy Incognito” image similar to Homer Simpon, teasing that the icon “more accurate in conveying the level of privacy provided by ‘traceless mode’”.
SlashGear points out that when you use Chrome's "Secret Browsing" mode, the browser can be prevented from saving history and other private data.
Compared with the normal browsing mode, Incognito Mode makes Chrome more private, making it difficult for others to peek at browsing activities on shared computers.
Embarrassingly, "traceless mode" fails to play the role expected by ordinary users - it cannot conceal the client's IP, geographical location, or other potential identification data like a virtual private network, but instead hides traces of activity in a relatively small, completely local range.
In addition, although Chrome does not record the browsing history of the "Invisible Tab", it still retains all the bookmarks created during the period and download.
SlashGear added that the report surfaced as part of a class action lawsuit against Google .
criticized the company for still collecting user data while the browser enables "traceless mode", which has seriously misleading user perception.
Finally, a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg that the company has actually always been very clear about the exact way "traceless mode" works.
