Google has introduced many privacy improvements, including a new Incognito mode for maps. It prevents Google from saving specific data types and removing personalization from its graph.
The Incognito mode for the maps will run on Android this month, the company confirmed in a blog post. It builds on Incognito for the Chrome browser and also for the YouTube app where it appeared this year. Although this new Incognito mode might sound exciting, it is essential to understand not just its benefits but its limitations of going Incognito as well.
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While going Incognito, keep in mind the following things
- Enabling Incognito mode for the maps will stop data generated from the specific device from showing up in your location history. If you share your location with someone through Google Maps, it will pause sharing your device location when active.
- Incognito maps also stop app-related notifications and app personalization. But it doesn’t offer protection across all devices.
- When you turn on Incognito mode, a warning message appears: “Turning on Incognito Mode in maps doesn’t affect how your activity is used or saved by internet providers, other apps, voice search, and other Google services.” That means the Incognito mode is not doing anything to anonymize your web traffic to the outside world. It is merely minimizing the record of your map browsing in your Google account.
- You can say that Google Incognito mode is less of a privacy tool and more of a pause button on a TV remote- you use it occasionally. If you want to anonymize your browsing, the better tool would be a VPN instead.
How to turn on Incognito mode in Google Maps?
To use Incognito mode in Maps, you simply have to tap your account photo in the upper-right corner of the screen. Next, tap on “Turn on Incognito Mode.” You can also sign out of Google Maps, which accomplishes many of the same things. You can do this without logging out of your Google account entirely on Android and iOS.
Incognito mode was designed to be used as needed instead of being an always-on setting. While you can still navigate, get directions, and search for places while you’re Incognito, you lose all the personalized map features, such as the ability to see restaurants nearby.
The privacy policy of Google says that even when you are not signed in to your Google account, the company still collects and stores your browsing history and behavior in its services.
But they tie that data to a unique identifier rather than a full account. Data from Incognito maps sessions has been stored with a unique identifier assigned to that Incognito session.
Google also announced some other privacy-related measures last week. , such as YouTube will now have a setting to auto-delete your video browsing history every three or eighteen months.
The company is also adding its password checkup, formerly just an extension to Chrome’s built-in password manager.
To improve Google’s voice-related privacy within the assistant, you can now say “Hey Google, delete the last thing I said” or “ Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week. You don’t have to navigate through the menus or settings in a browser to do this.
Final Thoughts
Although incognito mode is not entirely useless. You should never forget that nothing in the digital world can completely hide your digital identity from a sophisticated opponent or adversary. Understand that incognito doesn’t mean non-findable or traceable in the digital world. But you can muddy your digital tracks enough to make the adversary navigate to a digital wilderness of mirrors to find you.
Just like anything else, this new Incognito mode of Google Maps also comes with its own set of pros and cons as well as challenges.
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