How each privacy technology actually works
Incognito mode, VPNs, and Tor all get mentioned in the same sentence when people talk about “privacy online,” but they’re three different technologies protecting three different things. This page is an honest, plain-language walkthrough of what each one does and doesn’t do, so you can pick the right tool for the exposure you actually want to reduce.
What each mode actually changes
Green means blocked, amber means partial, red means still visible. This is what happens to each category of signal depending on how you're browsing.
Mode comparison
Incognito, VPN, and Tor — what each actually does
Click a mode to see what it protects, what it doesn’t, who it’s for, and common myths about it.
Baseline: clear what’s stored on your device
Below are browser-specific steps for clearing cookies, site storage, cached files, and granted permissions. This only touches data sitting in your browser on your device. It does not reach anything the site has already collected and stored on its own servers — that data stays with them. Your options for server-side deletion are narrower: a GDPR erasure request (EU/UK), a CCPA/CPRA deletion request (California), or whatever the site’s privacy policy specifically offers. Browser cleanup is useful hygiene, but it can only do what’s in front of it. The hardware-derived signals (canvas, WebGL, audio fingerprints, IP address) also won’t budge from this — those only yield to Tor Browser or a VPN.
Your visitors leave these footprints on your platform too.
What you just saw is the reduction side of the story — what visitors can do to protect themselves. As a business, you sit on the other side of that transaction, receiving these signals from every visitor. A SignumCyber assessment looks at how you handle data you collect passively (analytics, session recordings, cookies, fingerprinting scripts, third-party tags) and whether your practices match what your privacy policy says.
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