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How to enable Google Chrome Incognito Mode detection blocking

Google has released Chrome 74 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it comes with a really handy feature to prevent websites from being able to tell if you are browsing in Incognito Mode... but you have to turn it on.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

If you are browsing the web using Google Chrome's Incognito Mode, chances are you don't want websites to know that you are doing so. Unfortunately, it's been possible for sites to know if you are using this feature for a while now, and use this information to block your browsing.

Until now.

Google has today released Chrome 74 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it comes with a really handy feature to prevent websites from being able to tell if you are browsing in Incognito Mode... but you have to turn it on. 

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Websites could tell if users were browsing in Incognito Mode because it blocked access to the "FileSystem" API. Now, Chrome 74 offers users the ability to spoof websites tracking this by creating a temporary virtual file system in a computer's memory, making it look like the browser is not in Incognito Mode.

But this feature is not turned on automatically. Here's how to enable it.

  • First, make sure you are using Chrome version 74. If you are not being offered it as an update just yet, check again in the coming days.
  • Running Chrome 74? Good. Now type into the address bar chrome://flags/ and hit ENTER.
  • Search for Incognito, and when you find the setting Filesystem API in Incognito, enable it.
  • Done!

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