A shared desk means the next colleague to sit down could open the very browser you were just using. Docognito only controls what is on screen right now, not what is left behind. Sign out and close the tab before you stand up. The disguise does not clear history, sign you out, or delete saved conversations.
What the disguise actually changes for the current session
While you are signed into ChatGPT or Claude on a shared machine, Docognito changes exactly what the earlier articles in this cluster describe on any other site: the visible page, redrawn as a document editor reads as a document editor, and the browser tab title and the tab icon stop naming the assistant. Anyone glancing at the screen over your shoulder while you are sitting there sees paperwork.
That coverage lasts exactly as long as the browser tab is open with the disguise switched on. It says nothing about what the machine holds once you get up and someone else sits down.
A hot desk is a different setting from most of the others this guide covers, because the risk is not a glance while you are present. It is what remains findable after you have already left. That distinction is why the steps below matter as much as the disguise itself, and arguably more, on a machine that is not yours alone for the day.
What a hot desk leaves behind that the disguise does not touch
Signing off is a separate step the disguise does not do for you
Docognito does not clear your browser history, does not sign you out of the assistant, and does not remove saved conversations from your account. All three stay exactly as you left them, and the next person to use that browser could find any of them.
This is worth stating plainly because it is the part people assume a "hiding" extension covers. It does not, by design. It changes what is rendered on a page while the tab is open, and a shared computer's real risk starts the moment you walk away, not while you are seated at it.
Diagnosing what a shared machine actually exposes
| What the next person could find | What actually stops it |
|---|---|
| Browser history showing claude.ai or chatgpt.com | Clear it manually, or browse in an incognito or guest window from the start. |
| Still signed into your account | Sign out from the assistant's own menu before standing up. |
| Saved conversations under your account | Nothing on the machine removes these. They live on the assistant's servers, tied to your account, not the browser. |
| The disguise still switched on | Harmless on its own. It only changes how the page looks, not who is signed into it. |
The row worth acting on is the second one. Signing out is the single step that actually removes access, rather than merely changing how the page looks while you had it open. A machine on a genuinely shared login, rather than your own account, raises the stakes further still, since anything left signed in is then reachable by whoever sits down next, not only by someone who happens to glance at your browser history out of curiosity.
A short routine for standing up
Sign out of the account
Use the assistant's own account menu, not just closing the tab. Closing a tab often leaves a session signed in for the next person.
Close the tab, then the window if it was the only one open
This removes the disguised tab along with everything else you had open, leaving a clean browser for whoever sits down next.
Clear history if the machine is genuinely shared
A shared login on a hot desk usually means shared history too, so treat the browsing record the same way you would treat a signed-in account.
Consider a guest window from the start
An incognito or guest browser window avoids most of this after the fact, because history and sign-in state from that window disappear when it closes rather than needing to be cleared manually afterwards. Docognito works the same way inside an incognito window as it does in a normal one, provided the extension is allowed to run there, which is a separate Chrome setting from anything covered here.
Some hot-desk setups already reset the whole profile between users, through a shared login policy or a scheduled wipe run by whoever manages the machines. If that is the case where you work, ask rather than assume, since a policy like that changes how much of this routine you genuinely need to do by hand each time you stand up.
The screen fix and the sign out habit are not the same thing
Use the disguise for what it actually does, keeping the page looking like a document for as long as you are sitting at the machine, and treat signing out, closing the tab and clearing history as a separate routine every time you stand up. Skipping the second part on a shared desk leaves your account and your history exactly where the next person can find them.
Use Docognito for the screen, and a genuine sign-out habit for everything a screen cannot cover.