a profile that removes all history still writes to disk, and potentially leaves traces behind. (a backup could be running while the session is open, or a data could be left behind on a disk block because the files are deleted but not wiped)

incognite mode is useful for two situations:

A: you want to hide the fact that you visited a site.

B: you want to hide from the site that you have visited before.

the incognito-detection is largely against the second case (B), so your suggested workaround would work. what would also work is firefox tab groups. since each tab-group starts off empty.

the problem is that both ways are cumbersome. you have to open a new browser with that profile or you have to create a new tab-group and remove it after each use.

in firefox the problem could be solved by adding a "wipe, but don't delete tab group" feature. for the profile method you'd need a feature to "open link in new profile" to make that convenient.

A lot of people will be trackable still under B by IP address (yes, I know it's not identifying in general).

I get arbitrary IP addresses from my ISP but if my router isn't reset then it can be the same for weeks; Brave solves this with incognito+tor.

tracking by ip address is for the lazy, and it doesn't work with dynamic IPs. at least not if the goal is to eg limit your access to how many articles you read per month. you'd not be happy if you go to a site for the first time but are blocked because you got a new IP that has already been to that site 5 times this month.

i'd use full browser/device fingerprinting to achieve the same effect. much more reliable.

It does not have to be cumbersome if you do it like I do:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484845

that doesn't help. having a profile that cleans itself isn't the problem. switching between a normal and a cleaning profile is.

for most of my stuff i want to keep the history and whatever else around. i also never restart my browser or my machine if i can't avoid it. (restarts happen when i don't want them, and that's when i don't want to loose my current state). so i am still stuck with specific sites that i need a second, cleanable mode for. it's the mode switching that is the issue. switching into incognito mode or to a new browser group is easy enough. so fixing either is the way to go.

I do not quite understand what do you mean by "switching".

In my workflow, when I want "Incognito", I just start a new Chromium session on tmpfs. No switching needed.

i am reading stuff, like HN, and a topic comes along that is considered controversial where i live. i do not want it to show up in my browser history.

so i right-click, open link in private mode, or in a tabgroup.

i am done reading, i close the private window or wipe the group.

with your method i'd have to first start a new browser with that second profile, then copy the link to the new browser to read. that's a lot more work than just selecting an entry from the right-click menu.

> with your method i'd have to first start a new browser with that second profile, then copy the link to the new browser to read.

But that is just about a second of work: my wrapper executable for chromium is named tb, and I use Dmenu with DWM for X window management, thus in four key presses and one mouse middle click the new browser instance is started and the URI copied: "ALT-P" "t" "b" "Mouse button 2".

Is there an extension available to add an option to open a link in a new profile? (Genuinely curious)

If the computer or Chrome crashes during an incognito session a nanny thread would leave the incognito history on disk forever. It’s better to use lower level tools.