If you are worried about someone knowing that you have visited our website, there are a number of steps you can take to minimise your risk online. 

 

Exit Site Button 

The Exit site button on the right hand side of Safer Places website will direct you to Google homepage but you will still need to delete your browsing history to cover your tracks. 

Can Internet Activities be Tracked Online? 

Please read this page carefully to help increase your safety when visiting this website. 

All internet browsers will gather information from you as you search online. This information includes images from websites you’ve visited, information and terms you have input into search engines and all the different web pages you have clicked on. There are ways you can minimize the chances of these being tracked by someone else. 

First of all you will need to know what browser you are using. If you do not know what browser you are using there are a couple of ways to find out. At the top of each browser there should be a ‘settings’ button on the toolbar at the top, click that and a drop down menu should appear. Within the menu there should be a Help option, when you click or highlight Help it should state About Internet Explorer, About Google Chrome, or something similar which relates to the browser you are on. If using Windows 7 or higher another useful way is to right click the browser icon on your Taskbar at the bottom of the screen and it should give you a few options; Close Window, Pin to Taskbar and the name of the browser should appear next to the icon. 

Private Browsing 

All major web browsers have a “private browsing” mode that will not store your activity on your current device or computer while enabled. This won’t stop online services from being able to see what you are visiting, but it won’t leave any trail of your activity on your device or computer (no history or web cache).

Internet Explorer: Click the Tools button which looks like a cog – go to Safety – click “InPrivate Browsing”

Chrome: Click the Menu button with three vertical lines and select “New Incognito Window”.

Firefox: Click the Menu button with three vertical bars and select “New Private Window”.

Microsoft Edge: Click the Menu button with three horizontal lines an select “New InPrivate Window”. 

Similar options can be found on Opera and Safari. 
As well as using “Private Browsing” it is best to follow the additional 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 Browsing History 

We have mentioned browsing history a couple of times on this page so how do we delete it? Browsing history will keep a record of each website you have visited so it’s best to get into a habit of deleting this even after using “private browsing”. To delete history for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Microsoft Edge, press and hold Ctrl and then press H (Ctrl, Alt and H for Opera). Find any entries that associate with www.saferplaces.co.uk, right click and delete. 

  

Email 

If you receive threatening or harassing email messages, they can be printed or saved as evidence of abuse. Emails you have previously sent will be in your Sent Items, unless they have been deleted. If you close an email without sending it, it could be located in your Drafts folder. If you reply to an email, the original message will be in the body of the message – print and delete the email if you don’t want anyone to see your original message. 

When deleting items from your email programme (Outlook, Express, etc.) it doesn’t completely delete them straight away. It moves them to the Deleted Items folder which works similarly to the Recycle Bin on Windows. You will then need to go into the Deleted Items folder and delete them again which will prompt you “Are you sure you want to permanently delete the selected item(s)?” or something along those lines, select Yes when you are happy you want to remove the selected email. 

  

Toolbars 

Toolbars are integrated into web browsers and will keep a record of the search words you 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 the Google icon, and choose “Clear Search History”. 

  

General Security 

It is important that your devices are locked with a password and the password is not shared with anyone, even trusted family or friends. The safest way to find information on the internet if you do not have a password on your computer/laptop would be 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. The safest way to find information on the internet, would be at a local library, a friend’s house, or at work.