How to cover your tracks

Please note: 

The information on this page is for guidance purposes only and may not completely cover your tracks online. If you want to be completely sure of not being tracked online, the safest way would be to access the internet at a local library, an internet café, friend's house or at work.

Which browser am I using?

Click on Help on the menu at the top of the browser screen (see the example image below). A drop down menu will appear, the last entry will say "About Internet Explorer", "About Mozilla Firefox", or similar. If you select it, you will be told the browser name and version you are using.

Internet Explorer browser type

How to hide your tracks

Below are some of the most popular browsers used today. If the browser you are using is not listed here you should be able to find help on the internet by searching for the term 'delete your history', and then the browser name - for example, you could search "delete browsing history internet explorer" on the search engine Google.

Below are some guides for how to delete your history on four of the most popular browsers.

Chrome

  • Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar.
  • Select 'Tools'.
  • Select 'Clear browsing data'.
  • Tick the "Clear browsing history" checkbox.
  • Use the "Clear data from this period" menu to select the amount of data you want to delete.
  • Click 'Clear browsing data'.

Further information: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95537

Firefox

  • Click 'Tools' on the toolbar
  • Click 'Clear Recent History'
  • A small window will pop up asking you what time range you want to clear. You can select to clear the last hour, last two hours, last four hours, today or Everything.
  • Click 'Clear Now'

Further information: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Clear%20recent%20history

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 3 to 6

  • Click 'Tools' on the toolbar.
  • Click 'Internet Options'.
  • Click the General tab, and then click Clear History.
  • Click Yes, and then click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.

Further information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/157729

Internet Explorer 7 and 8

  • Click 'Tools' on the toolbar
  • Click 'Internet Options'.
  • Click the General tab, and then, under Browsing history, click Delete.
  • Under History, click Delete history, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the history.
  • Click Close, and then click OK

Further information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Clear-the-history-of-websites-youve-visited

Safari

  • Click 'History' on the toolbar
  • Click 'Clear History'

Further information: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/3.0/en/9360.html

Private browsing

When you look at websites your web browser will usually store information such as browsing history, images, videos and text on the hard drive of your computer.

Many modern browsers offer a privacy mode. When privacy mode is enabled the browser does not store this information for selected browsing sessions.

Below is guidance on the different privacy mode options available. Please note, if you click privacy mode now your browser will still store information about your visit to this page. To delete this information read the information above about deleting your history. 

Chrome

The Chrome browser offers a feature called "Incognito mode" which allows you to look at web pages without storing information about the sites you've visited. Further information about how to turn on Chrome "incognito mode".

Firefox

The Firefox browser (version 3.1 onwards) offers a feature called "Private browsing" which allows you to look at web pages without storing information about the sites you've visited. Further information about how to turn on Firefox "Private Browsing" mode.

Internet Explorer

The Internet Explorer browser (version 8 onwards) offers a feature called "InPrivate browsing" which allows you to look at web pages without storing information about the sites you've visited. Further information about how to turn on Internet Explorer "InPrivate Browsing" mode.

Safari

The Safari browser (version 3 onwards) offers a feature called "Private Browsing" which allows you to look at web pages without storing information about the sites you've visited. Further information about how to turn on Safari "Private Browsing" mode.