Cover Your Tracks Online
If you are worried about someone knowing about the websites you have visited or if you are worried that someone might know that you have visited this website, then please read on.
The information on this page is will be useful to
Help you cover your tracks
Stay safe online
Continue to search to obtain information you need without someone knowing
Protect Yourself
Protect yourself and the information you access online from a perpetrator finding out. Websites and other technology are commonly used by perpetrators to find information and for them to maintain control and track your movements.
You can protect yourself while on the internet searching for information.
Please take a few minutes to read the instructions below and to take steps to increase your safety when visiting this website or any other you may use to obtain information.
It is vital that you use this information to protect yourself online.
How Browsers Work?
Internet browsers save certain information when you surf the internet that is, when you search for information on the web.
When you enter a subject or name on the search bar, the browser will record it in the electronic memory for easy access later on. The problem with this is that perpetrators can use the memory to find out the information you have been accessing while online.
This includes images from websites visited, information entered into search engines and a trail (‘history’) that reveals the sites you have visited. Please follow the instructions below to minimise the chances of someone finding out that you have visited this website.
Protect Yourself | Hide Your Search History
Identify Your Browser
If you know what browser you are using, then skip to the relevant instructions below.
If you do not know the type of browser you are using, click on Help on the toolbar at the top of the browser screen.
A drop-down menu will appear, the last entry will say About Internet Explorer, About Mozilla Firefox, or something similar.
The entry refers to which browser type you are using – you should then refer to the relevant instructions below.
Exit Site Button
The green Exit Site button on the right of LBWP’s website will quickly hide the page but you will still need to delete your history to fully cover your tracks.
Private Browsing | Deleting Your History
All leading web browsers have a “private browsing” mode that, once enabled, stores nothing about your activity on your computer in that browsing window.
This won’t stop online services from seeing what you get up to, but it won’t leave any traces of your activity on your computer (no history, web cache or anything else) and so it’s always a useful first step to take.
Internet Explorer: Go to Safety – Tools – “InPrivate Browsing”.
Firefox: Click the Menu button with three horizontal lines – “New Private Window”.
Chrome: Click the Menu button with three horizontal lines and select “New Incognito Window”.
Similar options can be found in Opera and Safari.
It is also best to double check that nothing has been stored by following the steps below.
Internet Explorer
Click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
On the General page, under Temporary Internet Files, click on Delete Cookies and then OK.
Click on Delete Files, put a tick in the box labelled Delete all offline content and click OK.
Under History, click on Clear History and then OK. Now look at the top of the window and click on the
Content tab, select AutoComplete and finally, Clear Forms.
Firefox
Click on Tools and then Options, then click on Privacy.
Click on the Clear button next to Cache and Saved Form Information.
Deleting Your Browsing History
Internet browsers also keep a record of all the web pages you visit.
This is known as a ‘history’.
To delete history for Internet Explorer and Firefox hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, then press the H key (Ctrl, Alt and H for Opera). Find any entries that you want to remove from your browser history, right click and choose Delete.
If an abuser sends you threatening or harassing email messages, they may be printed and saved as evidence of this abuse.
Any email you have previously sent will be stored in Sent Items.
If you started an email but didn’t finish it, it might be in your Drafts folder.
If you reply to any email, the original message will probably be in the body of the message – print and delete the email if you don’t want anyone to see your original message.
When you delete an item in any email program (Outlook Express, Outlook, etc.) it does not really delete the item – it moves the item to a folder called Deleted Items.
You have to delete the items in deleted items separately. Right click on items within the Deleted Items folder to delete individual items.
Toolbars
Toolbars such as Google, AOL and Yahoo keep a record of the search words you have typed into the toolbar search box.
In order to erase all the search words you have typed in, you will need to check the individual instructions for each type of toolbar. For example, for the Google toolbar all you need to do is click on the Google icon, and choose “Clear Search History”.
Don’t forget to log out.
If you use our Survivor’s Forum, don’t forget to log out of your account when you have finished your browsing session so no one else can log in as you.
General Security
If you do not use a password to log on to your computer, someone else will be able to access your email and track your internet usage.
The safest way to find information on the internet, would be at a local library, a friend’s house, or at work. All of the above information may not completely hide your tracks.
Many browser types have features that display recently visited sites.