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Erase my tracks

Concerned about someone finding out where you’ve been on the internet?

Here’s how to reduce the chances that your net travels will be traced.

Browsers like Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox are designed to leave traces behind indicating where you’ve been and what you’ve been looking at on the Internet.

You cannot absolutely guarantee that your travels on the Internet can’t be traced at all, but here are some simple things you can do to reduce the chances that someone can look through your computer and find out whatd you’ve been reading.

In general, you want to erase two things:

  1. Your Cache (this is where the computer stores copies of files you’ve recently looked at with your browser).
  2. Your History List (this is a single file containing the addresses of the places you’ve recently visited).

Select the browser that you use to find out more information about browsing privately and deleting your history:

One additional but important tip

When you clear the cache and the history list, you erase not only the information on where you've been, but any other information that had been previously stored there.

So, if your partner checks and sees that the cache and the history list have been completely emptied, he'll not only know that you know how to do this, but he might guess that you're trying to hide something.

One possible way to avoid suspicion is to clear the cache and history once you're done looking at information you don't want your partner to know about. After they're cleared, spend some time visiting sites that you think your partner wouldn't object to. This way, the cache and history list start to get filled up and your partner might be less likely to notice that old information is missing.

If you use Chrome…

On a computer

  1. On your computer, open Chrome.
  2. At the top right, select More.
  3. Select History and then History.
  4. On the left, select Delete browsing data.
  5. Select how much history you want to delete. To delete everything, select All time.
  6. Check the boxes for the info you want Chrome to delete, including Browsing history. 
  7. Select Delete data.

On an Android device

  1. On your Android device, open Chrome
  2. At the top right, tap More and then History.
  3. If your address bar is at the bottom, swipe up on the address bar. Tap History.
  4. Tap Delete browsing data.
  5. Next to "Time range:" To delete everything, tap All time.
  6. Check the box next to "Browsing history."
  7. Tap Delete data.

On an iPhone/iPad

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open Chrome.
  2. Tap More and then History.
  3. At the bottom, tap Delete Browsing Data.
  4. Check Browsing History. It may be checked by default.
  5. Tap Delete Browsing Data and then Delete Browsing Data.
  6. At the top right, tap Done.

If you use Safari…

On a computer

  1. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose History and then Clear History…, then click the pop-up menu.
  2. Choose how far back you want your browsing history cleared.

On an iPhone/iPad

  1. Go to Settings and then Safari.
  2. Tap Clear History and Website Data.

If you use Edge…

  1. Select Settings and more…  > Settings  > Privacy, search, and services.
  2. Under Delete browsing data > Clear browsing data now, select Choose what to clear.
  3. Under Time range, choose a time range from the drop-down menu.
  4. Choose the types of browsing data you want to clear.
  5. Select Clear now.

If you use Firefox…

  1. Click the menu button (the three horizontal lines) to open the menu panel.
  2. Click History and select Clear Recent History…
  3. Select how much history you want to clear:
    • Click the drop-down menu next to When: to choose how much of your history Firefox will clear (the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, the current day or everything).
    • Use the checkboxes to select what information you want to clear from your history. Checking Cookies clears both cookies and site data with non-persistent storage.
  4. Click the Clear button. The window will close and the items you've selected will be cleared from your history.

If you use Samsung Internet…

  1. Navigate to and open the Samsung Internet app, tap Menu (the three horizontal lines), and then tap Settings.
  2. Tap Personal browsing data.
  3. Tap Delete browsing data, and then choose your desired options.
  4. Tap Delete data and then Delete to remove your browsing data. If you have a lot of data on your phone, it may take a minute or two for it to completely clear.

Other browsers

Other browsers will be slightly different in the detail of what's required to do these two things. But in any case, what you'll need to do is clear your cache (or "temporary files") and erase your history list. Again, this doesn't guarantee that your browsing can't be traced. Someone with greater computer sophistication will still be able to reconstruct your net travels. But it's a good thing to do to make it more difficult for someone to know where you've been.

Cover your email tracks

  1. Be sure to delete any outgoing and incoming emails
  2. Change your email password often (at least once a month)
  3. Print all threatening and harassing emails to use as evidence of criminal activity.

Page last updated: August 14, 2024
Source: AWHL