Force incognito mode in Mac Google chrome

fsteffy
New Contributor

Has anybody figured out in current version Google Chrome how to enforce incognito mode (private mode)? As anybody knows in education, expecting students to log out of registration or instructional websites doesn't always happen and occasionally another student or individual will come along and be able to access the previous user's private data. About the only 'sure' way we have 'fixed' this is to encourage students to reboot the computer after they are done. Most of the browsers have an enforceable privacy mode, but Google Chrome doesn't seem to.

Any suggestions or ways you have managed to do this would be greatly appreciated!

8 REPLIES 8

BerkleySupport
New Contributor

This script will disable Incognito mode. We have a policy which runs the script. We are finding that it works once the MacOS machine is restarted.

!/bin/bash

defaults write com.google.chrome IncognitoModeAvailability -integer 1

mickgrant
Contributor III

@BerkleySupport he's asking for the exact opposite of that... he wants the browser to ALWAYS be incognito.

I did a quick look and the only way that I could find on short notice is to replace the chrome shortcut with a script that launches it in incognito, maybe give that a try. script info is here
I don't think this is the best way to go about this problem tho, i think setting up a guest account and idle logout timers probably a cleaner solution.

teodle
Contributor II

@BerkeleySupport can this command be applied at the user level? That would answer your earlier question, right?

mickgrant
Contributor III

@fsteffy I found your solution!
Use profile creator to create a config profile for google chrome. there is a setting that will force incognito mode, it also allows for setting homepages and bookmarks and much much more
a6aae2f793be4d7db84e8d1eb6f74196

Just came across this, never used Profile Creator and was able to create a restrict to Incognito Mode config profile perfectly in like 10 minutes, thanks!!! Excited to look into what else I can use it for.

cjatsbm
New Contributor II

Tried that but it won't push to the device

Dingo
New Contributor

In case anyone else finds this via search before this page - there is currently a "2" option that forces incognito for the setting:

defaults write com.google.chrome IncognitoModeAvailability -integer 2

https://cloud.google.com/docs/chrome-enterprise/policies/?policy=IncognitoModeAvailability

How do you get this to work? A script?