Browsing history shows the list of websites you have visited for a time range. It has its demerits when using a shared computer or mobile. People can easily trace your actions on a webpage. Cookies also store your online information for easy access and usage tracking and statistics. This makes it important to always clear your browsing history and cookies if you are on a shared computer or phone.
The easiest way to stay anonymous on the web is by using a good VPN to mask your IP address. Or still, use an anonymous browsing window to hide websites from your history. Visiting that x-site, use a better VPN to surf anonymously and reduce consumption data on your PC.
PC BROWSERS
1. Google Chrome. Click on the three-dot menu at the upper-right of Chrome to select Settings > Show advanced settings > Clear browsing data. Or type in the omnibar – chrome://settings/clearBrowserData. This takes you directly to the dialog box to delete the history of your browsing, all your cookies, cached images, saved passwords and download history. Deleting download history does NOT delete your downloaded files. You can delete only information from the last hour, day, week, month, or all of it. Google Chrome has many tricks that give the user a faster way of interacting with this application.
2. Opera. Under the main menu in Opera, go to Settings > Privacy & Security. You’ll see a Clear browsing data button that offers almost the same settings as Chrome. You can also type “opera://settings/clearBrowserData” into the address bar(type without quotes). Opera offers a built-in VPN option to those who want to go around the Web safely. This VPN option is found in the Privacy & Security settings.
3. Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. Go to the three-dot menu in Microsoft Edge and select settings; in the flyout menu, click the button under Clear browsing data that reads “Choose what to clear”. Clean up browsing and download history, cookies, cached data, stored form data, and stored passwords. Click Show more and you can delete things like sites you’ve given permission to show pop-ups. Use “Always clear this [data] when I close the browser” option to delete browser history as soon as you close the browser.
Microsoft keeps some of your histories online. Click Change what Microsoft Edge knows about me in the cloud to visit a page for your Microsoft account where you can delete that synced browsing history. You can also delete search history at Bing.com, stored location data showing where you’ve logged in, and stuff you’ve stored in Cortana’s notebook.
On Internet Explorer (IE), click on the Gear icon at upper left and select Internet Options. On the General tab, you can check a box next to Delete browsing history on exit or click the Delete button to instantly get rid of history, passwords, cookies, cached data (called Temporary Internet files and website files), and more. If you instead click Settings, you go to a History tab and make sure your history is only collected for specific days, automatically deleting anything older.
4. Safari. Click Clear History on the main menu. Then in the pop-up, pick a timeframe for how far back you want to erase. This also takes out your cookies and data cache. You can instead click History > Show History to get a pop-up displaying every site you’ve visited, then take out sites individually, without losing the cookies and cache.
5. Mozilla Firefox. From upper-right, click on History to see the list of visited sites. From there, click on Clear Recent History Option to delete all of them. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Del. From the sidebar, go to Options > Preferences then choose either remember history, never remember, or do some custom settings, such as always go into private browsing mode, or never store history or cookies, or to clear the history when closing Firefox.
6. UC Browser. Click on the desktop icon on the upper-right. Click on History, tick from the left the websites you want to delete from the history. Use “clear browsing data…” to clear all your browsing data and cached files. From there you will get an advanced option of what to remove permanently. On your keyboard, hold down Ctrl+Shift+Delete for quick navigation.
How To Quickly Clear Browsing History
For multiple browsers, use CCleaner to delete all browsing histories from all your browsers. This software helps to save space. It erases junk data from multiple programs installed on your PC. This is how Windows PC handles deleted files.
MOBILE BROWSERS
1. Safari. On the iPhone and iPad go to Settings > Safari > Clear History & Website Data. Doing this not only takes out history, but also cookies and other stuff. Plus, if the phone is signed into iCloud, it clears the history on iCloud as well as on other devices hooked into that iCloud account. Use Private mode while surfing online to never save or store the websites you visit. If you want to only delete data for some sites, go to Settings > Safari and scroll down to Advanced > Website Data. After it loads you’ll see a listing of every website you’ve visited—and probably a lot you didn’t, because it also records the sites serving third-party cookies. Click edit > minus symbol next to each to delete, or just swipe left for the same function.
2. Chrome. Click on the three-dot menu, select History, it shows the websites you have visited. Here, you delete the individual website, search for a website or clear the entire browsing record. Use Incognito mode for browsing anonymously.
3. Firefox. Menu > History > clear browser history. Finish. Click on Clear private data to choose what to delete from your browsing record. Use Incognito mode for browsing without being recorded.
4. Dolphin. In Android, click the Dolphin icon in the toolbar and select Clear data. You’ll get a choice of deleting browser history, cached data, cookies, form data, passwords, and location info. Use Settings > Data > customize what happens when you close your browser; either clear data or delete browsing cookies.
5. Opera. Use Menu to find the History, then click on clear history. This brings options on what to clear or delete. Make your choice and delete. In Opera, open a private tab to browse without keeping your history, form or data.
6. UC Browser. Click on Menu, History, and click Clear to clear all browsing data. Navigate to Downloads and hit clear to clear all download history. Clearing download history does not delete the files from your mobile device.
7. Incognito Browsers. There are many available browsers on the store which will never keep your browsing records and data. This is great if you want to remain anonymous all through. Head over to Play Store and search Anonymous Browser. Download the one with the best rating.
NOTE: Use a VPN to mask your IP address and use incognito browsers or any private window from your browser. This is the best way to remain anonymous throughout your browsing session. Always protect your details from online snoopers and access restrictions in your local areas.
