staying safe online

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If you’re worried about someone finding out you've been on this website, there are a number of steps you can take to stay safe online.

Delete your browsing history

Follow the instructions below to remove your browsing history from your phone, tablet or laptop.

Chrome and Android

  • Open the Chrome app

  • Select More >> Settings

  • Under Advanced, select Privacy then clear browsing data

  • At the top, select the dropdown under Clear data from the past hour / past day...

  • Select the types of information you want to remove

  • Select clear data

Safari and iOS

  • Open settings and select Safari

  • Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data

  • You’ll be presented with a popup warning you that this action will clear your history, cookies, and other browsing data from this and any other devices (such as iPads) that are signed into your iCloud account

  • Select Clear History and Data and everything will be erased

Open Internet Explorer (IE)

  • IE 9: In the upper right corner, click the gear/cog icon

  • IE 8: From the Tools menu, select Internet Options >> Internet Options

  • On the General tab, under Browsing History, click Delete

  • Un-check the Preserve Favourites website data box

  • Check the Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and History boxes

  • You can leave the Form data, Passwords, and inPrivate Filtering data boxes un-checked or check them to delete this data if you want to

  • Click Delete

  • Click OK, then close the Internet Explorer window and reopen

Firefox

  • Tap the Menu button

  • Select Settings (you may need to select More first)

  • Scroll down to the Privacy & Security section and choose Clear Private Data

  • Select the items you want to clear and then select Clear Data

Private browsing

Once you’ve deleted your browsing history, it might be worth familiarising yourself with your browser’s private browsing mode, which opens a secure window that stores nothing about your activity on your device. Online services may still be able to see what you do, but there won’t be any traces of your activity (such as history, web cache, cookies, etc) for your abuser to find.

Chrome and Android

  • Open the Chrome app

  • Tap More >> New Incognito tab

  • A new window will open. In the top right, check for the grey Incognito icon

iOS

  • On your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, open Safari

  • Select the overlapping-square icon in the bottom right-hand corner

  • Select Private, then select Done

Safari

  • Hold down Command+Shift+N

  • This will open a new window with private browsing enabled

  • Alternatively, go to File >> New Private Window

Internet Explorer

  • Open browsing window

  • Hold down Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut key

  • Or go to Menu >> Safety >> InPrivate Browsing

Firefox

  • Open browser

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu

  • Then click New Private Window

  • Private browsing windows have a purple mask at the top

There’s more about how to stay safe on our get safe page. Or take a look at our self-help tools for ideas about moving forward. Please just contact us if you need to someone to talk to. We’re here to help.