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Staying Safe Online  

The internet has become a fundamental part of our everyday lives and makes many things much more accessible. It’s a vital tool that we use to offer support and information for many survivors. However, we know that abusive people may also use the internet to track and control their victims. It’s essential to keep in mind some general safety tips when you’re online to ensure your safety.

Quick Exit Button

To ensure your safety while using our website, we have implemented a ‘Quick Exit’ button. If you’re worried about someone seeing you use our site, this button allows you to leave our site quickly and erases any trace of it from your internet history.

What happens when you click the button?

Your browser will open a new tab with a google search page and replace it with a BBC news page. The back button will take you back to the page you visited before you came to our site.

Internet history

When you visit websites, their addresses are stored in temporary folders on your computer’s hard drive. This information is put together into a log of your internet history so you can go back and review where you’ve been on the internet.

About cookies 

A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer via your web browser when you visit some websites. These cookies are used to store information about you for the next time you visit that site – information like where you went on the site and what you did. The cookie remembers the computer you use rather than storing personal details about you, so if you used another computer to access the site, say from school, it would treat you as a new person.

Cookie files are a great way for a website to remember you when you next visit so they can automatically fill in information like your login when you return. However, if you want to surf the net without worrying that someone can see which sites you have visited on the computer you are using, you might want to delete this information.

How to cover your tracks           

If people want to see which websites you’ve been to, all they need to do is look at either your internet history or the cookies saved onto your computer.

To keep them from being able to do this, you will need to:

Delete all cookies from the Temporary Internet files on your computer
Delete all the Links in your history folder

Don’t worry – deleting these files and links isn’t difficult. Here’s what you need to do. First of all, find out what internet browser you are using to access the internet. You can do this by looking at the top bar of the screen where the name of the browser should be displayed.

 

Edge

To clear browsing data on your computer, make sure sync is turned off. Items that are synced will be cleared across all synced devices.

Here’s how to clear your browsing data in Microsoft Edge:

  1. Select Settings and more  > Settings  > Privacy, search, and services .
  2. Under Clear browsing data, select Choose what to clear.
  3. Choose a time range from the Time range drop-down menu.
  4. Choose the types of data you want to clear (see here for descriptions). For example, you may want to remove browsing history and cookies but keep passwords and form fill data.

  5. Select Clear now.

Google Chrome

Android

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app Chrome.
  2. At the top right, tap More More and then History.
    • If your address bar is at the bottom, swipe up on the address bar. Tap History History.
  3. Tap Clear browsing data.
  4. Next to “Time range,” select how much history you want to delete. To clear everything, tap All time.
  5. Check “Browsing history.” Uncheck any other data you don’t want to delete.
  6. Tap Clear data.

Computer

  1. On your computer, open Chrome.
  2. At the top right, click More More.
  3. Click History and then History.
  4. On the left, click Clear browsing data. A box will appear.
  5. From the drop-down menu, select how much history you want to delete. To clear everything, select All time.
  6. Check the boxes for the info you want Chrome to clear, including “browsing history.” Learn more about the types of browsing data you can delete
  7. Click Clear data.

iPhone & iPad

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Chrome app Chrome.
  2. At the bottom right, tap More More and then History History.
  3. At the bottom, tap Clear Browsing Data.
  4. Check Browsing history. It may be checked by default.
  5. Uncheck any other items you don’t want to delete.
  6. Tap Clear Browsing Data and then Clear Browsing Data.
  7. At the top right, tap Done.

 

To delete your search history, learn about clearing activity saved in My Activity.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 6

  1.  Tools > Internet options. This will open a box with the names of several different sections along the top.
    2. In the middle of this box is a section called Temporary Internet Files. Select button marked Delete Files.
  2. When the box pops up, check the Delete All Offline Content box and then select OK.
  3. When your computer finishes deleting your temporary internet files, you will be back in the General Internet Options box.
  4. Look at the section below called History. Here you can Select Clear History.
  5. A dialogue box will ask you if you want to delete all items in your history folder. Click Yes.
  6. Click OK to close the Internet Options box.

Internet Explorer 7 (and Above)

  1. In Internet Explorer, select the Tools button, point to Safety, and then select Delete browsing history.

  2. Choose the types of data or files you want to remove from your PC, and then select Delete.

 

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Select the Library button 57 library icon, select History and then select Clear Recent History….
  2. Select the drop-down menu next to Time range to clear to choose how much of your history Firefox will clear (the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, the current day or everything).
  3. Select how much history you want to clear
  4. Use the check-boxes to select what information you want to clear from your history. Your choices are described here
  5. Click the OK button. The window will close and the items you’ve selected will be. cleared from your history.

Safari

Clearing information from your Mac:

  1. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose History > Clear History, then click the pop-up menu.
  2. Choose how far back you want your browsing history cleared.

Clearing information from your iPhone, iPad or iPad:

  1. To clear your history and cookies, go to Settings > Safari, and tap Clear History and Website Data. Clearing your history, cookies and browsing data from Safari won’t change your AutoFill information.
  2. To clear your cookies and keep your history, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data, then tap Remove All Website Data.
  3. To visit sites without leaving a history, turn private browsing on or off.
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