Cover Your Tracks
All internet browsers save some information about the websites you visit as you browse the internet, this includes information typed into search engines such as google. Following the instructions below will prevent anyone from being able to see which websites you’ve visited.
If you already know which web browser you are using then skip to the relevant instructions. If you don’t know which browser you are using then click on ‘Help’ on the toolbar at the top of the browser window and a drop down menu will appear that includes a button titled ‘About Internet Explorer, About Google Chrome’ or something similar.
Private Browsing
Most browsers have a ‘private browsing’ mode that when enabled allows you to visit websites without storing any information about the websites you’ve visited on your computer. This won’t stop your internet provider from being able to see which websites you’ve visited but it doesn’t leave any history on your computer, using this mode in future is advisable. To enable private browsing follow the below instructions
Internet Explorer
- Go to Safety – Tools – ‘InPrivate Browsing’.
Firefox
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘New Private Window’
Chrome
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘New Incognito Window’
Opera
- Click File in the toolbar at the top of the page
- Click ‘New Private Window’
Safari
- Click File in the toolbar at the top of the page
- Click ‘New Private Window’
Clearing Your Browsing History
If you have visited this site without enabling private browsing you can clear your history by following the instructions below
Firefox
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘History’ and then click ‘Clear Recent History’
- Click the drop-down menu next to Time range to clear to choose how much of your history Firefox will clear
- Click the tick boxes next to ‘Browsing & Download History’, ‘Form & Search History’, ‘Cookies’ and ‘Cache’
- Click the Clear Now button
Chrome
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘History’ > ‘History’
- On the left, click ‘Clear browsing data’. A box will appear
- From the drop-down menu, select how much history you want to delete. To clear everything, select ‘the beginning of time’
- Click the tick boxes next to ‘Browsing History’, ‘Download History’, ‘Cached images and files’, ‘Cookies and other site data’ and ‘Autofill form data’
- Click ‘Clear browsing data’
Internet Explorer
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘internet options’
- On the general tab click the ‘delete’ button under ‘browsing history’
- Click the tick boxes next to ‘Temporary Internet files and website files’, ‘Cookies and website data’, ‘History’ and ‘form data’.
- Click the ‘delete’ button.
Microsoft Edge
- Click the Menu button
- Click ‘Settings’
- Scroll down the settings menu to ‘Clear browsing data’ and click ‘choose what to clear’
- Click the tick boxes next to ‘Browsing History’, ‘Cookies and saved website data’, ‘cached data and files’ and ‘form data’.
- Click the clear button