The term “private browsing” far exceeds taking precautions. It entails ensuring that computer users can hide their activity while traveling the information highway. There are different motives for private browsing with security and privacy being the front runners. No matter the inspiration for using private browsing, the bottom line remains that people do not want to leave tracks on the Internet.
Activating Private Browsing
There are various methods that can be used to activate private browsing. The methods can vary across operating systems, variety of devices used and browsers.
The following are ways to privately browse the Internet:
Internet Explorer 9 (Microsoft)
IE9 offers “InPrivate Browsing which can easily be activated from the Safety menu or through a shortcut. This feature does not save cache or cookies. When logging out of the InPrivate mode, the search and browsing history is erased. “
Method for private browsing – Go to the “Tools” menu and select “InPrivate Browsing”.
Firefox 3.6
The Private Browsing Window is an extension Firefox offers that allows you to “privately browse” during a session. You can browse using the new incognito window in conjunction with your existing session. In the past, Firefox would automatically close windows and tabs in working sessions when you switched to “private browsing” mode.
Click on “Tools”.
Click on “Private Browsing Window”.
Important fact – “Private Browsing Window” is still under testing, and it might not be as smooth as expected. This feature only comes with Firefox 3.6.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome has what is called “Incognito Mode”. This feature allows you to surf the web incognito with your personal information and history not being saved on the hard drive. Do not worry, while in this mode, if you make changes to your general settings or bookmarks the changes will be automatically saved.
Important tip – If using Chrome OS, you have an alternative feature called “guest browsing”. If you browse as a “guest”, you can download files and browse the web in a normal-fashion. All the information from your sessions will be erased.
To open “incognito mode”
Click located in the browser toolbar.
Click on “New incognito window”.
You will see a new window opening with the 
icon located at the corner. You can browse normally in the other window.
Safari 5
With Safari 5’s Private Browsing feature you can rest assured that your files, and cookies will not be saved to your hard drive. Your entire search history and browsing history will be automatically erased upon logging out of privacy mode.
How to activate “Privacy Browsing”
Click on the “Gear” icon (The Action Menu) found in the upper-right corner of the browser.
From the menu, select the option “Private Browsing”.
You will see a pop-up dialog displayed explaining the “Private Browsing” mode
Click the “OK” button to enable “Private Browsing”.
iPad
You can now turn on “Private Browsing” in iOS 5.0 in Safari. This allows you to browse the Internet via your iPad without having to worry about a record of your activities being stored.
Instructions to Enable “Private Browsing”
Press the “Home” button to return to the iPad’s home application screen.
Click on the “Settings” application icon
Click on “Safari” located in the left-hand menu and enter iPad’s Safari settings.
Switch the “Private Browsing” switch under the Privacy section to “On” which will allow private browsing on the iPad.
When turning off “Private Browsing”, reverse the above directions.
iPhone
“Private Browsing allows you to surf the Internet without saving any information from the websites you have visited. This proves helpful in not leaving digital footprints on your device.
To enable “Private Browsing”
Go to “Settings”
Switch on “Private Browsing”
If your status bar turns black, you will see that you activated “private browsing” properly.
Author Bio: This article is written by Alfred Richards, Alfred is a freelancer and a blogger, his areas of Interest are technology, web hosting and web marketing; visit his site VPN service and iVPN.net for more information.
