Load Chrome websites automatically in Incognito Mode

Incognito Mode is Google Chrome's private browsing mode. When you load websites in Incognito Mode, session data that is stored locally is not stored. In other words, Chrome does not save data to the browsing history, cache, or cookie storage among others.

Incognite Mode offers several advantages besides that: extensions are not enabled by default in the mode which blocks potential data leaks and sites handle Incognito Mode independently from the rest of the browser.

If you are signed in to your Facebook, Google, or Twitter account in the normal browsing session, you are not signed in when you open the same site in Incognito Mode. Great for making sure that activity cannot be linked to accounts but also to sign in to another account without interfering with the session of the first.

Google Chrome does not include options to always open certain sites in Incognito Mode. You can install extensions, however, to add the functionality.

Here is a selection of extensions that let you do that

• Hidden: Auto Incognito Filter -- Last updated in 2016. Add sites to a filter list to enforce the opening of these sites in Incognito Mode.
• Incognito Filter -- last updated in 2013 but it works. Use it to add any website to a list maintained by the extension. All sites on the list are opened in Incognito Mode automatically.
• Incognito Regex Fixed -- last updated in 2013 but it works just fine. Add patterns, e.g. *.google.com, to always open any google.com domain in Incognito Mode.

All extensions have in common that they use filter lists to determine whether a site needs to be opened in the browser's Incognito Mode. Sites that are on the filter list are launched in Incognito Mode regardless of how they are opened. You can type the address and hit the Enter-key in the address bar or click on a link that points to the site: the site gets opened in Incognito Mode regardless.

It needs to be noted that the extensions reveal which sites get always opened in Incognito Mode. While that is not a problem if you are the only user with access to the particular account on the computer or device you are using, it may reveal information if that is not the case.

Closing Words

Should you use a browser extension to always load specific sites in Chrome's private browsing mode? I have to admit that I prefer a different solution. Instead of using a browser extension, I prefer to use a different browser (or profile) to separate tasks.

While that may be a tad less comfortable than using a single instance, the end result, that you work with multiple windows, is the same.

Now You: Do you use private browsing modes?

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