Tired of having your every move on the web tracked, filed, classified and algorithmically regurgitated as shopping suggestions?

It's almost impossible to be truly anonymous online, but most of today's web browsers will let you go incognito whenever you wish, thanks to something called "private browsing."

In these private-browsing modes, now available in all major browsers, your web browser will reject cookies, stop keeping a surfing history and throw away any cached files. As a result, anyone else using your PC wouldn't have a clue what you'd been up to on the web.

Of course, it's important to realize there are plenty of ways your movements are still being tracked. While your browser might be cover your tracks, it often doesn't cover all of them. Download a file in private-browsing mode, and it's still there on your machine.

Then there's your ISP, which still sees the traffic moving through its network, and it knows that traffic came from you.

However, if you're shopping for a present — or, ahem, doing anything else you don't want other family members to know about — private-browsing mode will most likely suffice in covering your tracks.

Here's how you can enable it in today's web browsers.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome gives you a special blue-shaded browser skin to indicate you're in Incognito mode (Click for larger).

Chrome's private-browsing mode is called "Incognito." On Windows, it can be found under the Tools menu (the wrench), or in the File menu on Macs. Just select "New incognito window."

The resulting window will be a darker shade of blue and has a helpful warning screen about scenarios where Incognito may be insufficient for covering your tracks.   READ MORE