There you go on the web, visiting site after site. And following you like a wake behind a boat is the digital detritus of the Internet: Cookies, trackers, and other online evidence of your visit. That stuff can come back to haunt you, unless you take advantage of various privacy features found in modern web browsers.

The feature is called Incognito on the Google Chrome browser. In Internet Explorer, it’s known as InPrivate. Regardless of the name, the effect is the same: When you browse the web, the normal electronic evidence of where you’ve been is suppressed. It’s a nifty feature, especially these days when Internet advertisers are doing their best to track you down and get you to buy something.

As a test, I went to Amazon and looked up men’s slacks. I did that mostly because I detest the word slacks.

Lo and behold, a few hours later, while I was off browsing on another site, an advertisement from Amazon appeared on that page, urging me to buy slacks. That’s the kind of Internet tracking that the incognito filters are designed to suppress.

So, you see, this feature isn’t just about browsing porn. In fact, it doesn’t even help if you think the incognito mode somehow suppresses evidence of your jaunts into the land of skin. All the feature does is turn off some of the information collected locally.

When you browse the web, the web browser program (or app) collects information about where you’ve been. That information is retained in the history list. Further, local information, such as form data you’ve filled-in previously, may be summoned as you browse. Additional information includes cookies dropped by the various web sites you visit. All that stuff is used to track you.

To follow my earlier example, when I shopped at Amazon, a cookie was left on my computer which ties into my Amazon account. When I visited a web site later, that same cookie was read by Amazon’s advertising engine, and my pervious Amazon search was recalled so that items I perused would be presented again.

Sneaky.

To go incognito in Google Chrome, which is now my favorite web browser, press Ctrl+Shift+N. On the Mac, press Command+Shift+N. A new Incognito window appears. As long as you use that window to browse the web, none of that tracking technology is used.

In Internet Exploder, press Ctrl+Shift+P to enter InPrivate browsing. Firefox also uses Ctrl+Shift+P to enter its Private Browsing mode.

Now an argument could be made to go incognito all the time. The problem is that some of those cookies and trackers are useful. If you find yourself having to log into web sites all the time, or that a shopping cart feature doesn’t work, then you need to use the regular browser, not the incognito mode.

Also, keep in mind that incognito mode doesn’t destroy all the evidence. While the History list may be clear, the local browser cache still contains items from places you’ve been. Bottom line: if you don’t want evidence that you’ve been to a certain web site, don’t go there in the first place.