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Why Does My Husband Use Private Browsing?

By: Author Jeff Campbell

Posted on Last updated:

Categories Save Your Marriage

Is your husband frequently on his laptop or desktop but often closes his browser when you walk in the room? Maybe you’ve even noticed him using an incognito window or just don’t see anything when you check the search history. If that sounds familiar, you’ve likely wondered “why does my husband use private browsing?”

Your husband can use private browsing to hide his search history, but it could also be to not save his login information, especially if others use his computer. Lastly, he could be using it so that Google isn’t tracking his online behavior as they naturally customize searches based on his patterns.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad is going on. Has your husband been using incognito mode for no good?

In this article, find out if you have anything to worry about, and what some legit reasons are for using private browsing. We’ll even explore how you can find a computer’s search history, even if your husband used the incognito mode.

Let’s get started.

Why would my husband hide his search history?

Since nearly every action we take online is recorded somewhere and affects our browsing experience in the future, your husband might want to stop it from happening by using incognito mode. But if the marriage is rocky, it could also be to hide his chats, visits to dating sites, or even just to look at porn.

It might seem deceptive, but don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that its foul play against you.

Ever notice how almost every site has a pop-up warning about cookies these days?

It seems pretty harmless. They use cookies and track what you do on the site to place ads and content that you’re more likely to engage with.

But, sometimes, this data is then transferred to google or even a third party. So, your behavior on one site can easily shift your experience online elsewhere.

For example, let’s say you want to strictly use YouTube to watch videos about improving relationships. If you watch a lot of this type of content, your feed will likely be filled with more of the same.

But, what if one day you’re curious about signs that your husband might want a divorce.

By the way, this is what a recent article of mine is all about. So IF something bad is happening with him, there will doubtless be several other signs too. I walk you through all of them in my article.

Just click that link to read it on my site.

But if you watch a video on YouTube about cheating, then suddenly, your feed is popping up with videos about infidelity every day, even though it was just a passing curiosity.

Maybe your search suggestions start coming up with more nefarious recommendations. Someone searching YouTube with your phone could misunderstand what these recommendations mean and how they came to be.

Incognito mode avoids this problem entirely. So your husband could be using it just to hide his searches about topics he’s curious about but not seriously considering.

What is the purpose of using incognito mode?

The primary purpose of using incognito mode is to delete all records of a browsing session on that device. Nearly all record of the session is deleted from the device starting at the time you open the window until closing it.

That means there is no record of what sites were visited, for how long, or what Google searches were made.

While incognito mode could be a sign your husband is up to no good, most people who are even a little bit internet-savvy go incognito every day. You’ll see a lot of benefits and tricks that make it a useful tool for anyone worried about privacy on the internet.

When an incognito window is closed, your device “forgets” that the session ever happened.

That means all search history, login information, items in shopping carts, and site preferences are deleted. Why would someone with nothing to hide want to do this? To take control of their internet experience into their own hands.

Some people use incognito mode to search about sensitive issues they don’t want generating future ads or content.

Someone with ED or depression, for example, might not like the flood of medication ads that could be triggered by searching these conditions. This also prevents content or stories from popping up in your feeds where someone might see them.

Incognito mode can be great to use on someone else’s computer or a public one.

If you have to access a personal account and you’re worried about your login info being saved, just switch to incognito mode. Now, instead of manually clearing the cookies and checking that you’re logged out from each website you used, the browser takes care of all that for you.

As a blogger, I use incognito mode often when I am researching topics to write about. I don’t want Google showing me the search results it thinks I want to see. I want to see what everyone else sees the first time they search for a topic.

Incognito mode can be a useful tool, but it has some limitations.

Data is only removed from your device and does not affect what information the website’s server stores. That means if you searched YouTube while logged into your account, YouTube would still know what you searched for.

That means your history there will still be saved. All future searches and recommendations will be shifted slightly according to your behavior as if you didn’t use incognito mode.

How do you find out what your husband has been looking at online?

To see what your husband has been searching, check the search history but if he uses private browsing, you can check the DNS cache using a command prompt to see and even save all online activity. While the DNS data can be deleted, that requires more effort than most will put into it.

So there are a couple of ways to dig up your husband’s behavior online, including 1 surefire way that works even with private browsing.

Here are the steps to take to pull up and save search history using your DNS (Domain Name System) cache on a Windows 10 computer:

  1. Right-click the Windows key at the bottom left of the screen
  2. Click on Run towards the bottom of the menu options
  3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter:
    ipconfig /displaydns

It will then run the search and should display it on your screen. It can be a little tricky to read as it will show a long list of sites. You can use Control+F to search for specific sites you suspect have been visited.

(source)

But before getting into how to do it, it’s important to ask yourself, “Is this necessary?”

Doing this is unquestionably an invasion of privacy, something that two adults should be allowed a modicum of (even in a committed relationship).

If your husband has been throwing up red flags left, right, and center without any reasonable explanation, then invade away. If not, maybe there’s a better, straightforward solution to finding out what’s going on: just ask!

Explain what you’re worried about and how his suspicious behavior makes you feel. Get to the bottom of why he’s doing it and what is making you feel suspicious.

And do remember, if you demand to see his phone’s browser history or snoop around in his messages, you should expect to do the exact same thing for him.

Having these kinds of tough talks is one of the best ways to rekindle your marriage.

My wife asked for a divorce in 2013, and yet here we are years later with a 3rd child and our marriage better than ever. How did we do it? Luckily, I detailed all the steps we took in this recent article!

Just click that link to read it on my site.

Can incognito search history be found?

Incognito search history can be found unless a DNS flush has been performed. With a command prompt and a few simple entries, you can see what websites have been accessed by reading something called the DNS cache.

Read on to learn how.

Incognito mode can help control what data gets stored on your machine and is one part of maintaining your privacy online. But, it does not stop websites from storing your data based on IP or if you’re logged in to an account.

I gave you a quick look at this above, but now let’s do a more step by step approach.

It also does leave a remnant of what websites were visited in the DNS queries. A DNS is what connects your computer to a website by getting its IP info and name. Let’s learn how to find this list step by step.

  1. Type “cmd” into the Windows search bar
  2. Right-click and hit “Run as Administrator”
  3. Type “ipconfig/displaydns>location/filename. This will place a .txt file at the location you specified with the name you chose. (Copy and paste this without the quotations “ipconfig/displaydns>C:\dnsLog.txt”. This will place the file named “dnsLog.txt” in your C drive.
  4. Find the file and open it to see all search history.

Before you go through with this, please try talking it out the old fashioned way. It can seem like an instant relief with no harm done to search the history right away.

But, this suspicion you had didn’t come from just anywhere.

It will take effort to discover and work on the root of the problem. Wouldn’t it be better to work through this challenge and strengthen your marriage, than to just exist snooping and checking up on each other?

I get into exactly how to do that in a recent article that explains that while marriage does it effort and hard work, it’s totally worth it.

Just click that link to read it on my site.

Can you tell if someone uses incognito mode?

It can be challenging to detect if someone has used incognito mode. While checking the DNS records is the only way to know for sure, if you can see the screen when someone is browsing, look for visual differences such as the darker theme and lack of homepage or website recommendations.

By default, their account won’t be logged in.

That means if they do a Google search or use any Google tool, look for their profile icon in the top right corner of the screen.

An even sneakier way is to clear a shared device’s browser history and don’t use it again until your husband does. After they finish using the device, check the history. If there’s nothing listed, incognito mode has likely been used or he cleared the search history when he was done.

But keep in mind plenty of tech-savvy people out there have their browsers set to delete search history at certain intervals or at the end of every session. So, it’s not a guarantee that incognito was used here.

But if you check the settings and don’t see it set to delete search history on every visit, then it was definitely cleared intentionally. The real question is why?

Takeaway

As you can see, there are a ton of perfectly reasonable explanations for why someone would use private browsing.

While yes, someone could definitely be using it to conceal bad behavior, infidelity, or sensitive issues, the legitimate benefits are far greater than the potential to do harm.

Ultimately, you know your man best. So if your husband were up to no good, there are dozens of other signs your husband wants a divorce. You would probably notice them all before this one.

When in doubt, have a good talk first. Trust your instincts. If the answers don’t sit right with you, then maybe it’s time to go the sneaky route yourself to find the truth.

Afraid you’ll uncover your worst fears? Find out if your marriage can be saved in my recent article about staying together after infidelity. Believe it or not, a marriage can be saved after an affair and even get much better. I know. I’ve lived it.

Just click that link to read my story on this website.

 
Jeff Campbell
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