Cover your tracks online
When you browse the internet on a mobile phone, tablet or computer, you leave a ‘history’ trail of pages and sites you’ve visited.
You may not want other people to know that you’ve been searching for information or help from websites such as Beyond Closed Doors.
It’s impossible to completely avoid being tracked online but if you’re worried about someone knowing which sites you’ve been looking at, there are some things you can do to help cover your tracks.
While you're browsing
Quick exit button
If you don’t want someone to see that you’re viewing the Beyond Closed Doors website, you can click the ‘Quick Exit’ button on the right, which will take you away from this site to the BBC Weather page.
Switching tabs
If you’re using a laptop or desktop computer, try keeping another document or website open in a new tab or window while browsing. If someone comes in the room and you don’t want them to see what you’re looking at, you can quickly switch to another window or tab.
Private browsing (incognito)
When you’re browsing ‘incognito’, the internet browser won’t store cookies or record your browsing history on the computer, mobile or tablet.
This option is available on the most commonly used web browsers:
When you're finished browsing
Delete your browsing history
You can delete the history of websites you’ve visited, but it’s important to know that if you delete your browsing history, someone else using the same device may notice.
If you share a tablet, mobile phone, laptop or computer with someone, they might notice that passwords or website addresses have disappeared from their history.
Find out how to delete your browsing history from the most commonly used browsers:
- Chrome: delete your browsing history
- Firefox: delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox
- Internet Explorer: deleting your web page history
- Safari: delete your browsing history
- Opera: deleting private data
Toolbars
If you use a search toolbar in your web browser, remember that your searched items can be saved as part of your history. Find out how to delete your searched items from the following search engines: