How To: 5 Great Reasons Why You Should Use Private Browsing Online

The creation of private browsing was brought upon by the backlash against ad tracking and other ways that sites and agencies take away users' privacy online. People were tired of getting spammed with ads for Vitamin C pills simply because they visited WebMD. Private browsing is now built into all of the major browsers and is used frequently.

While private browsing is more infamously known as the "Porn Portal," and does prove to be a great way of keeping racy content out of the sight of others, it has many other advantages that aren't as well known.

Private browsing is great for the NSFW side of the internet (which is most of it), but it can also help manage multiple users, keep your passwords safe, save data, and so much more. Here are just a few things that private browsing can do for you.

Facebook and Other Frequently Visited Sites

Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the entire world. The social network provides users with constant contact with friends and family members. If you're like me, you have your email and password already saved at the log-in screen. This really doesn't cause any problems for me since I am the only person who uses my computer.

But for people who have a family computer or a laptop that roommates may use every now and then, private browsing is a great tool. Instead of these other users accidentally logging into your account or having access to your credentials, they can use private browsing and avoid all of that.

Plus, you can use private browsing so no one knows you looked through 110 of your ex-girlfriend's photos last week. It's a win-win. The same goes for popular sites like Gmail or Yahoo. I can't tell you how many times I've logged into Gmail after a friend uses my computer and realized that I'm looking at their emails!

Testing, Testing...

Ever had a semi-shady friend tell you to check out a website, or receive an email with a suspicious link?

Well, instead of putting your personal browsing data at risk or having an inappropriate website show up in your work computer's history, you can use the private browsing feature. This way, if you open something that's a little more, err, unsavory than expected, you don't have to worry about it coming back to bite you later.

Holiday / Gift Shopping

When shopping for Christmas presents or other gifts, it's best to use the private browser. This way, you can avoid the chance of having someone run across one of the shopping pages you were looking at.

Sites like Amazon are very popular, so there's a good chance that what you look at might be discovered accidentally or by way of some hopeful snooping. The surprise makes a great gift even better, so use private browsing to keep it a mystery.

Minimizing Your Personal History

No matter if it's your work computer or your own personal device, having as little personal data stored is the safest and most efficient way to protect your information. Not only does this keep sensitive materials off of the device, but it also saves space.

When you use the normal browser, it stores nearly everything you do. That includes what you download, what pages you visit, photos you upload, temporary files, and even the amount of time spent on each page. All this information takes up space and could cause problems for you if someone gets a hold of your device, plus, tons of companies use it to serve up targeted ads.

With private browsing, you don't have to worry about erasing it because it's never recorded in the first place, and the less advertisers know about you, the better.

Save Money on Airline Rates!

This is probably the most surprising and little known benefit of private browsing. If you love to travel, this tip could end up saving you or your family hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of dollars down the road. Redditor Tiradium was shocked to see the price of his plane ticket jump almost 200 dollars in the same day without private browsing on.

Since many websites store your browsing session information, airlines can see what tickets you are interested in purchasing. If you do not make the purchase at that time, the next time your search for those tickets, the price may well have gone up. They use this tactic because they believe that the jump in price will persuade you to make the purchase now, before the price rises again.

However, Tiradium went back to purchase the ticket, this time using private browsing, and saw that the price was the same as it was when he initially searched for it the first time! It's the holiday season and a bunch of us will be flying around the country, so remember to use private browsing when searching for your tickets. It could end up saving you a lot of money.

What Do You Use Private Browsing For?

Do you know of any other great uses or advantages to private browsing? Let us know in the comments section below.