Hiding your internet usage history
If you are worried about someone knowing you have visited these pages please read the following information on covering your history. If you want to get away from this page please use the 'useful information' links to unrelated pages, you can always come back here by using the back button on your browser.
It is possible for someone to view which sites or pages you have visited. Your browser may store the address as well as any images from websites you visit, and also words you have entered into search engines. The advice below should help you to remove any evidence of the sites you have visited. The instructions are given for several of the most popular browsers.
How to find out which browser you are using
To find out which browser you have, use the ‘help’ link at the top and one of the links will be called ‘About’ followed by the name of your browser.
Deleting your internet usage history
You can delete all of the history of your browsing, or just the pages you want to remove. It may be less noticeable if you only remove selected pages.
To delete selected pages in Internet Explorer and Netscape/Firefox hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, then press the H key (Crtl, Alt and H for Opera). Find any entries that you want to remove, right click on them and choose Delete.
Deleting cookies
Cookies are small text files which track your on-line sessions. They may also contain login information for websites such as shopping sites or email. If you delete all of your cookies this login information will no longer appear. It may be less noticeable to delete individual cookies.
To delete individual cookies find your cookies file by searching for cookie using the find or search option in Windows or Finder on a Mac. The file will be called Cookies or cookies.txt in Windows and cookies.txt or magiccookie on a Mac. You can then open the file and delete any cookies you want to remove.
Deleting your entire Internet usage history and all cookies
AOL
- select Members
- select Preferences
- select WWW icon
- select Advanced, select Purge Cache
Firefox
- select Tools and then Options
- select Privacy.
- under Cache select Clear
- under Saved Form Information select Clear
Internet Explorer
- select Tools
- select Internet Options
- on General page
- under Temporary Internet Files select Delete Files
- under History, select Clear History
- on Content page
- select AutoComplete and Clear Forms
Netscape
- select Edit menu
- select Preferences,
- select Navigator and select Clear History,
- select Advanced then Cache then select Clear Disk Cache
Opera
- select Tools
- select Preferences
- select Advanced
- under History use the two Clear buttons and the Empty Now button
E-mail
If you receive abusive emails you should save them or print them out and keep them as evidence.
If you want to hide emails you have sent or received, go to your sent items folder and delete the email, then delete it from your deleted items. Remember that if you started an email and didn’t send it, it will be stored in your drafts folder.
If someone replies to your email, the text of your email may be at the bottom of the email you receive. To remove it scroll down and delete all of the text below their response and delete it then save the email.
General computer safety
This information may not completely hide your tracks. Many browser types have features that display recently visited sites. The safest way to find information on the Internet could be at a local library, a friend's house or at work.