How to hide your browsing history

All websites you visit and all your online activities are stored on your computer or smartphone. If you do not want others to have access to that information you must clear your browsing history. We tell you here how you can browse the internet anonymously and how you can clear your browsing history.

Use the internet anonymously

So as not to leave any traces of which websites you visit, you can use the internet incognito, i.e. anonymously. The incognito mode prevents your browser storing data about your internet use. Some web browsers use the term “private browsing”.

If you use the internet incognito, the computer or smartphone will not store:

  • your searches
  • the sites you visit
  • your login details
  • cookies.

You have to start in a new window for private/incognito mode. How this is done depends on which web browser you are using:

Firefox

The mode is called private browsing. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P or choose New Private Window from the application menu.

Google Chrome

The mode is called incognito mode. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N or click the shift key up in the right corner and choose New Incognito window.

Opera

The mode is called private browsing. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N or click the Opera icon in the top left corner and choose New private window from the menu.

Microsoft Edge

The mode is called InPrivate. Right-click the Microsoft Edge logo in the taskbar and select New InPrivate window.

Internet Explorer

The mode is called InPrivate. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P or choose InPrivate browsing from the Tools menu.

Browse incognito on a smartphone

Turn Private Browsing on or off on your iPhone or iPod touch (support.apple.com)

Turn Private Browsing on or off on your iPad (support.apple.com)

Browse in private on Android (support.google.com)

Clearing the browsing history on a computer

Go to a neutral page before you choose to clear the cache. If you choose to clear all traces, remember that if someone else uses the same computer their history will be erased as well. That is why it may be sensible to only clear your own history.

Clearing the history may not be entirely secure either. A skilled computer user can trace erased information in a computer if they know how to do it. That is why it may be a good idea to browse anonymously, then no web history is saved.

  • Clear everything. Click the menu button that looks like three lines in the top right corner or the web browser. Choose “History” and click “Clear recent history”. In the menu “Clear recent history” you will see a scroll bar and you can choose “Time range to clear”. Choose “Everything”. Please note that this erases everything and that you cannot recover the information you have erased.
  • Choosing what you want to clear. In “Time range to clear” you can also choose to clear the history of a certain time period, from the last hour or the last day when you were browsing. If you want to choose what to erase you can tick and untick one or more of the tick boxes.
  • Never save. In order to not save any information when you browse, go to the menu and choose “Settings”. Choose “Privacy & Security” and go to the section called “History”. In the menu “History/Firefox will”, choose the option “Never remember history”. If you do not want the browser to suggest web addresses when you start typing in the address bar, you can go to the menu “Address Bar/When using the address bar suggest” and untick the boxes.

  • Clear everything. In the menu for Safari, up in the left corner, click “Safari” and “Clear History”. In the window that comes up you can choose which time range you want to clear, from the last hour to all history. When you have made your choice, click “Clear History”. Please note that this erases everything for the time range you have chosen and that you cannot retrieve the information you have erased.

    In the menu for Safari you can also choose “Settings”. In the window that comes up you need to be in the tab called “General” and set the menu “Erase objects in history:” to “After one day”. The history is then not erased straight away but automatically at the end of each day.
  • Choosing what you want to clear. If you want to choose what is to be erased go to the menu field but choose “History” instead of clicking “Safari”. Click “Show All History”. Now you can see which pages are saved in the history. Erase the information about one or more pages you have visited by marking the line you want to remove, right click and choose “Delete”. You can also click “Delete” on the keyboard.

  • Clear everything. Click the symbol that looks like a menu with three dots up in the right corner of the web browser. Choose “Settings”. On the page that comes up click the heading “Privacy and security” and choose “Clear browsing data”.

    A box will now come up. To delete everything tick all the boxes and choose which time range you want to remove. You can choose to remove all history from the last hour up to all time. Click “Clear data”. Please note that this erases everything within the time range you have chosen and that you cannot retrieve the information you have erased.*
  • Choosing what you want to clear. You can also choose which information you want to delete by choosing the advanced tab and ticking one or more of the tick boxes. Choose a certain time range and click “Clear data” in order to delete the chosen data within the chosen time range.
  • Never save. In order for no information to be saved you go to “Settings” and the section “Privacy and security”. Select “Cookies and other site data” and you can choose to “Allow all cookies” or “Block all cookies” to prevent this. You can also choose “Block third-party cookies” by selecting this option. Under the section “Site Settings”, got to “Notifications” and select “Don't allow sites to send notifications” so that no website is able to show notifications on the desktop without permission.

  • Clear everything or choose what you want to clear. Click the menu button that looks like “…” in the top right corner or the browser. Choose “History”, click on “…“ and select “Clear browsing data”.

    In the “Clear browsing data” menu you see tick boxes and can choose what you want to clear. When you have ticked, click “Clear now”.
  • Never save. In order not to save any information when browsing, you can select "All time" in the time interval. Then the data that you ticked when surfing is never saved.

  • Clear everything. In order to remove all private information from a computer, click the symbol that looks like a cogwheel at the top right of the web browser. Choose “Internet options”.

    You will come to a screen with several tabs, you want the one called “General”. Click “Delete...”. If you want to remove all traces of having browsed, tick all boxes and click “Delete”. Please note that this erases everything and that you cannot recover the information you have erased.
  • Choosing what you want to clear. If you want to select what to delete you tick one or more of the tick boxes. You can then delete temporary files, cookies, previously visited websites, form data or passwords.
  • Never save. In order for no pages to be saved when you are browsing, click “Settings” in the “General” tab. In the “History” tab where it says, “Days to keep pages in history:”, write 0. In order to not save passwords and web addresses, click the cogwheel, choose “Internet options” and then the “Content” tab. Where is says, “AutoComplete”, click the “Settings” button. Untick the boxes.

Clear the web browsing history from a smartphone

How to clear the browsing history from your smartphone or other mobile device depends on which model you have. In addition to clearing your traces on mobile devices, the clearing also frees up storage space and improves performance.

Clear the browsing history from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Here you can read about how to delete history, cookies and the cache memory for Apple products (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch).

How to clear your browsing history in Safari (apple.support.com)

Clear your browsing history in Android

Here you can read about how to clear history and browse privately on an Android mobile phone or tablet.

How to clear your browsing history in Chrome (support.google.com)

Button – Leave the page quickly

We have a button you can click to quickly leave a page on arbetsformedlingen.se. That button is on the page Are you a victim of domestic violence? (in Swedish)

Some people may feel threatened and monitored and do not want people close to them to see the websites they visit. We want everyone to feel safe which is why we offer a way to quickly leave that specific page.