Hide My Site

Hide Your Viewing History

Warning – The safest way to find information on the Internet is to go to a safe computer.

Taking all of the actions on this page may not prevent someone from discovering your email and Internet activity. The safest way to find information on the Internet is to go to a safer computer. Some suggestions would be your local library, a friend’s house, an Internet cafe or your workplace.

 

If someone walks in while you are on the site, the quickest way to hide the site is to close the browser or page.

 

Hide your tracks as you surf

Some web browsers let you hide your tracks as you surf. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), Chrome and Safari all have private browsing modes that hide your web surfing history and eliminate the need to delete history data to preserve your privacy. This also prevents suspicion about why all the browsing history data have been cleared. Below are the names of the private browsing features.

  • IE8: “InPrivate Browsing”
  • Safari: “Private Browsing”
  • Chrome: “Incognito”

 

Clear your Internet browsing history

Every time you visit a web page your internet browser stores files related to your browsing session. These files include cookies, cache data, saved usernames and passwords, and downloaded items. If someone gets access to your browser after an online session, they can easily see what you have been looking at online.

 

In order to clear these browsing histories, you first have to identify exactly which web browser you are using. There are quite a few common web browsers in use today for example:

  • Internet Explorer (Microsoft)
  • Firefox (Mozilla)
  • Safari (Apple)
  • Chrome (Google)
  • Opera (Opera Labs)

 

To identify which browser you are using, click on the link www.thismachine.info  or www.whatbrowseramiusing.co and either will tell you. (Just note the browser and disregard the rest.) Alternatively you can click on help>about on your browser’s menu to find out.

 

If you share a computer with a tech-savvy person

If someone who has access to your computer is tech-savvy then you may also like to delete the browsing history stored in the ‘Temporary Internet Files’ and ‘Cookies’ folders on the hard drive of your computer. For more information about how to delete these files see the Microsoft support tutorial http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260897.

 

Another thing to consider is that a tech-savvy person may become suspicious if s/he looks up browsing history and finds no or few sites listed there. Because of this, you may prefer to delete only the sites that you do not want anyone else to see from the browsing history. Instructions are below, but for more information visit or speak with someone at www.netsafe.org.nz.

 

Steps to securely remove your Internet browsing history

Select the Internet browser you are using and follow the steps.

 

Internet Explorer 6

  1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu and select “Internet Options.”
  2. Click the “General” tab, and then click “Clear History.”
  3. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click the “Delete Files” button. This will delete all the files that are currently stored in your cache.
  4. Finally click the “Delete Cookies” button.
  5. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.

 

Internet Explorer 7

 

  1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu and select “InternetOptions”.
  2. Click the “General” tab.
  3. Under “Browsing History” click “Delete”
  4. In the new window, click “Delete Files” in the Temporary Internet Files section.
  5. Finally click the “Delete Cookies” button.
  6. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.

 

Internet Explorer 8

  1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu.
  2. Click on Delete Browsing History.
  3. Select “Temporary Internet Files,” “History,” “Cookies,” “Form Data,”“Passwords.”
  4. Click on “Delete.”
  5. Once the files have been deleted, you can dismiss the “Internet Options” dialogue by clicking the “Okay” button.

 

Firefox 1.5, Firefox 2, Firefox 3

  1. Go to Tools and select Options.
  2. Go to the Privacy tab, and click Settings… (in the blue box in the image).
  3. Select what you would like to have cleared.
  4. Return to the Options menu. If you want your cache cleared automatically,every time you close the browser, click the appropriate checkbox (shown in red in an earlier image).
  5. Press “Clear Now” under the Settings button.

 

Google Chrome

  1. Once your browser is open, select the tools menu.
  2. Select Clear Browsing data.
  3. Select all the relevant boxes: “Clear Browsing History,” “Clear Download History,” “Empty the Cache,” “Delete Cookies,” “Clear Saved Passwords,” “Clear Saved Form Data.”

 

Apple Safari

  1. In Safari, select from the top menu bar Safari > Reset Safari
  2. Selectall the checkboxes (cookies, history, cache, form data, etc)
  3. Press “Reset.”

 

Opera

  1. Once your browser is open, select the tools menu and click delete private data
  2. Click the “Details” button
  3. Make sure to select Cookies, History and Cache from the available options.
  4. Press “Delete.”

 

Steps to delete specific sites from your Internet browsing history (not ALL of them)

To delete only the sites that you do not want anyone else to see from the browsing history (and not the entire history) select your Internet browser from the below list and follow the steps. For help please contact www.netsafe.org.nz.

 

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x

  1. Click the “Tools” menu
  2. Select “Internet Options”
  3. Click the “Settings” button under “Browsing History”
  4. Click “View Files” and then right-click on each individual site that you want to delete and select ‘Delete’

 

Mozilla Firefox for PC

  1. Press Ctrl+H to open the left-side history bar or click “History” at the top of the window. Users using earlier versions of Mozilla Firefox can also view their history by clicking “Go” and then “History”
  2. Right-click on each individual site that you want to delete and select ‘Delete’

 

Mozilla Firefox for Mac

  1. Click the “History” menu and select “Show all History”
  2. Right-click on each individual site that you want to delete and select ‘Delete’

 

Netscape Users for Windows

  1. Open Netscape
  2. Click the “Edit Menu”, “Preferences” and “History” buttons to identify where Netscape stores the folder that contains Internet browsing files.
  3. Next open this folder and right-click on each individual site that you want to delete and select ‘Delete’

 

Safari

  1. Click on History menu and choose “Show all History”
  2. Right-click on each individual site that you want to delete and select ‘Delete’
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