Michael Gershuny, M.Ed, MSW, RSW

You can protect yourself by deleting the browsing history. According to Internet browsers, the procedure for covering tracks on the Web is different. Here is how to proceed with different browsers.
* With most browsers, it is possible to use “CTRL” + SHIFT + “DELETE” to delete tracks faster*

If you are using Safari:

• Choose “History” (in the menu bar at the top of the page)
• Choose “Clear History”. A window opens
• In the menu, choose if you want to delete “last hour”, “today”, today and yesterday” or “all history”
• Safari also empty caches, the list of recent searches and removes the website icons that appear in the search and address box.

If you are using Firefox:

• Choose “Open menu”
• Choose “History”
• Either choose “Clear Recent History”. You can then choose the time period to clear: the last hour, the last two hours, today… Or you can also choose to delete all. Confirm with “Clear now”
• Either click “View History panel”. A window appears showing all visited websites. You can right-click the websites you want to delete and click “delete this page.”

If you are using Internet Explorer:

• Choose “Tools” button (nut icon, top right). A column appears.
• Choose “Security” and choose “Delete browsing history”.
• A window appears. Some boxes are already checked by default. Be sure to uncheck them. Keep the boxes “Internet files and temporary web files”, “Cookies and website data”, “History”, “Download History”, “Form Data”. Confirm by choosing “Delete”.

If you are using Google Chrome:

• In the top-right corner of the browser window, click the Chrome menu bars (3 horizontal bar icon)
• Choose “History”. A window will open.
• Choose “Clear Browsing Data”. A window will pop-up and you can choose again “Clear Browsing Date” for the past hour or more. Do not forget that if you clear all the browsing data, you will also clear all other websites that anyone else has visited.
• If you want to delete certain website you can select them by clicking on selected websites and then choose “Remove selected items”. This will just remove the website you want to delete.