It can be easy for someone to see what you’re doing online, especially if you’re using a home computer.
You can make it more difficult for them by taking some precautions.
If you think your devices or internet search activities are being monitored, try to use a device that is not being monitored. For example, use a computer at the library, or borrow a phone from someone you trust. This is the safest thing to do if you do not want someone to know that you’re visiting certain websites.
Deleting your internet browsing history
Every time you use the internet, your browser stores a record of where you’ve been online with a list of the pages you’ve looked at and the files you’ve downloaded. Most websites also store small files called cookies which remember your settings for different sites.
You can improve your safety by deleting your internet browsing history. But you need to be careful because:
- deleting cookies will also get rid of stored passwords for online accounts
- clearing your history could make someone more suspicious
Try to only remove information about the websites you want to keep private. You can find out how to do that on:
- Safari – Keep your browsing history private in Safari and Maps
- Google Chrome – Check or delete your Chrome browsing history
- Microsoft Edge – View and delete browser history
- Samsung Internet – how to clear cache, cookies & history
- Mozilla Firefox – Delete browsing, search and download history
- Opera – Delete browsing data
Browsing in private
You can also look at a website without information like cookies being stored by using the private browsing setting in your browser:
- Safari Private Browsing window – see Safari – Keep your browsing history private in Safari and Maps
- Google Chrome Incognito mode
- Microsoft Edge InPrivate window
- Samsung Internet Secret mode
- Mozilla Firefox Private Window
- Opera Private window
How the ‘Exit this site quickly’ button works on this website
There is an ‘Exit this site quickly’ button at the bottom of every page on this website. If you click this button, you’ll be taken to the BBC weather homepage.
Cookies and browsing history will still be saved to your device.
About this information
This information on this page is adapted from ‘Ways to stay safe online – GOV.UK‘. It contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0