[AtheK]

Why would you want to browse on office laptop in office hours when you know w your manager is into micro management. Best is to use personal devices for personal work, these days mobiles are the best bet.

On a side note, what if your manager is also on Team-BHP ?

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

If your boss is hell bent on you NOT using incognito, just turn this setting on and use regular Chrome tabs. AFAIK it will be 100% similar to incognito in your use case, without the sketchy incognito vibe.

Thanks, this is a setting I didn't know existed.

Originally Posted by R2D2

I would heed his advice if I were you. Many corporates have strict rules about using the company's internet connection both during and after work hours. Breaking the rules can set you up for disciplinary action and even dismissal.

Indeed, its something I've started doing. Others problems I face with the work culture aside, this isn't an issue worth fighting for.

[INJAXN]

As already mentioned on this thread that using incognito mode will not help you in keep things private. Your employer, ISP can still see all the history of your browsing.

I think your manager just saw you browsing in incognito mode and thought of making you aware of the company policy. If he wants to track, and has that authority, he can still request browsing history of your computer from the IT Admin department.

[SideView]

Either manager is not competent or doesnt know how the IT infrastructure works.

If he is soo bothered about you browsing web rather than checking if your work gets done, i would update my profile and start looking for a new job.

Or is it that some other employee has ratted you out just to get some brownie points ?

In my 10+ years of corporate life, people dont care what I browse (NSFW is anyhow blocked)

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by vinair

Try ‘DuckDuckGo’ instead of Chrome. It’s amazingly safe and blocks advertisers, Data collectors etc.

Had switched to duckduckgo + brave browser since some time on my primary comp. Office comp still has Firefox, but with duckduckgo as the default search engine.
Unfortunately, this search engine seems to have been an unfortunate casualty along with the Chinese app ban .
Since I don't use a VPN, I've had to switch back to google.

Hope the government understands the difference between privacy and security.

[Guna]

I have seen many developers using incognito mode. I thought the reason is to open the URL of their site/application which doesn't have any saved credentials or cache. I did not know that it is banned in some organisations.

[bluevolt]

What about when employees are working from home? Connected to home wifi, can company still know what an employee is browsing/installing?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

What about when employees are working from home? Connected to home wifi, can company still know what an employee is browsing/installing?

Yes, if an organization uses some form of Mobile Device Mgmt. (MDM), then it's pretty much a given that nothing on that device is completely hidden from the IT admins, including the ability to lock down or completely wipe the device.

Here's how to check if Chrome on your device(s) is managed.

Centralized software mgmt. is usually the norm in most large organizations, because unauthorized software can compromise device and data security.

I, for example, cannot install anything on my office laptop that isn't centrally provisioned. There's also periodic sweeps for unauthorized add-ons, which are removed automatically.

My BYOD Android 10 phone has a separate 'Work' profile, managed by my organization and works in its own isolated secure container with its own apps (including its own instance of Play Store), and does not interact with any apps or info on the 'Personal' profile. For example: I cannot attach a picture taken from the Camera App on Personal profile to an email in Work profile, Need to use Camera on the Work profile for it.

[patron]

Use the Tor browser for better privacy. You can read more about it here: https://support.torproject.org/

[Debashis_1]

Originally Posted by Hayek

We use key stroke loggers and screenshot loggers on all our office machines - and AI systems to search them for potential causes for concern. And the firm is not liable if you have your net banking for example hacked because of a lapse in the firm‘s security.
.

Could you please let us know name of your organization? Also I was wondering if the employees are aware key stroke loggers and screenshot loggers have been installed on the office machines?

I understand that organization are sensitive about security and we create a lot awareness workshops to make employees understand the pros and cons.. However in my opinion installing key stroke loggers and screenshot loggers are violation of privacy itself.

[Starfire]

Ahh, the good old falling in trouble for using incognito mode. You're not alone, my friend, there are many others who sail in the same boat as you. One of my friend's company made them sign a contract when joining, which mentioned not using incognito mode in one of its points. The reason was that previously, one of its employees was found to be scrolling naukri.com for his office laptop at work.

However, my friend being the tech guru that he is found a loophole in the contract which didn't mention anything about using alternate browsers. He simply started using the lethal combination of Brave browser + VPN.

Simply put, mainstream browsers like Chrome and Firefox are just not the best when it comes to security. TOR browser is known to be one of the most secure browsers when it comes to privacy. It's like using Incognito mode but on steroids but it's not Incognito mode. In fact, even the U.S military is known to use TOR browser.
Using TOR browser is legal in India, but note that browsing illegal stuff like Drugs, Child pornography, or the dark web can put you in trouble if found. So be careful, since TOR is something that can give one unrestricted access to about anything and everything privately, hence I do not support or recommend browsing illicit content.

Brave browser, on the other hand, is like the best middle way out. It gives you a high grade of privacy which prevents you from seeing almost all ads if you choose to since majority of ads are data grabbers and trackers. However, you can configure it to show ads on sites you trust since it's ethically wrong to block ads as websites generate revenue from them. It even rewards you for doing so if you choose to; hence I highly recommend you check it out.

Conclusion: nothing is safer than using a reliable VPN. But when coupled with using an alternate private browser, it can be much safer and trouble-free experience at work than using incognito mode which only hides the history on your device but does not do so from your ISP.

[srikanthp3]

I use Brave browser as it generally protects you, though you run into some annoyances when pages fail to load because they are waiting for something which Brave has blocked.

Another alternative is to use uBlock Origin extension on your browser which does a marvelous job of blocking ads and intrusive trackers.

At home, I use the marvelous NextDNS (nextdns.io), a paid ($5 per month) service that stops trackers and ads right at the router level. In addition I have different profiles for different devices, ,my kid's devices have much more stricter restrictions - like blocking some social networks etc.

[spiritofmars]

If you are so concerned about your privacy, why are you using a work device for online browsing/personal stuff? Your boss is quite justified in asking you to use an office device in a specific config.

There are much better options to protect your privacy. Firstly, stop using Chrome. You cannot be serious about your privacy and use a browser made by a company that profits from your data. If ToR/Brave don't suit you, use safari/firefox. Also, double check your office policies - companies that stop you from using Incognito certainly won't be happy to see you use ToR. Use plugins like Privacy badger to stop sites from tracking you. Incognito mode is near-useless for privacy concerns.

[lemedico]

Switch to Duck Duck Go on both your laptop, and phone. It's more discreet!

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by Starfire

Simply put, mainstream browsers like Chrome and Firefox are just not the best when it comes to security. TOR browser is known to be one of the most secure browsers when it comes to privacy. It's like using Incognito mode but on steroids but it's not Incognito mode. In fact, even the U.S military is known to use TOR browser.
Using TOR browser is legal in India, but note that browsing illegal stuff like Drugs, Child pornography, or the dark web can put you in trouble if found. So be careful, since TOR is something that can give one unrestricted access to about anything and everything privately, hence I do not support or recommend browsing illicit content.

Seems like ToR is quite popular with those concerned with their privacy like me. However, as spiritofmars pointed out, a company which is uncomfortable with VPNs and incognito modes will certainly be uncomfortable with ToR browsers.

Thing is, there is no official computer-use policy in our company since it’s a start-up with less than 10 people in the head office (where I work). Infact, there is no dedicated IT personnel either! So, rules like these were made on the go when my boss noticed that I was using incognito.