Most users do not understand the meaning of “incognito” and “private” modes in browsers. According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago (USA), and the University of Hannover. Leibniz (Germany), users are confident that these modes fully protect against tracking and malicious software. Like Facebook users who "
do not use the Internet ." You can check yourself with
this survey .
The
study (reference to the
original , may not work in Russia) was attended by 460 volunteers from Mechanical Turk who received $ 5 for a half-hour survey. Scientists simulated the work of the Onyx browser invented by them with 13 different modes, which they took from existing browsers - Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave. Users watched videos with various scenarios of using the browser in private modes, and then answered questions about which data is saved and which ones are not.
It turned out that people do not really understand the functionality of such modes. 56.3% of participants thought that logging into a Google account in private mode would prevent tracking of search queries and save them in the account history. 46.5% thought that bookmarks saved in incognito mode would not be visible in normal mode. 40.2% were sure that this mode would prevent tracking geolocation. 27.1% believe that private mode protects against malicious programs, and 25.2% - that it helps to hide the IP address.
“We found that the information disclosed by browsers does not allow us to fix most of the erroneous suggestions of users that we tested. Among the mistakes are beliefs that the private mode will prevent geolocation, advertising, viruses, and tracking by both websites and the provider, ”the researchers write. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that few people like to read agreements and instructions.
In early 2017, a
study on this topic was presented by DuckDuckGo. Then, 5,710 Americans took part in the survey. 76% of respondents did not understand the benefits that private regimes provide. Moreover, only 8.5% of all respondents underestimated these opportunities, and 66.6% overestimated them.
Among the three common mistakes made by DuckDuckGo users are:
- 41%: "Does not allow websites to track me"
- 39%: "Does not allow advertising platforms to track me"
- 35%: "Does not allow search engines to find out about my queries"
And this is how the table of reactions of users who learned about their error looks like. More than 30% were neutral to this knowledge, about 15% were surprised, almost a quarter felt confused, about 4% were embarrassed, and 21% felt vulnerable.
The researchers concluded that the term “private” is too significant. In any case, when Google in the Chrome browser claims that people can “use the browser in private”, users will get a broader view of privacy.