Hide your visit

All the websites you visit and all your online activity are stored on your computer or smartphone. If you don’t want others to have access to this information, you have to clear your browsing history yourself or browse anonymously. On this page, we tell you how to surf anonymously and how to clear your Internet visits.

 

Surf anonymously – incognito mode

You can surf incognito, i.e. anonymously, so that you leave no trace of the websites you visit. Incognito mode prevents your browser from storing data about your browsing. Some browsers call it private browsing.

If you browse incognito, your computer or smartphone won’t save:

  • your searches
  • the pages you’ve visited
  • your login details
  • cookies.

Always launch in a new browser window for private browsing/incognito mode. How you do this depends on your browser:

  • Smartphone

  • Google Chrome

    This mode is called incognito mode. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N or click the shift key in the top right corner and select New incognito window.

  • Microsoft Edge

    This mode is called InPrivate. Tap “…” followed by New InPrivate window.

  • Firefox

    This mode is called private surfing. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P or select Start Private Browsing in the Tools menu. Unlike other browsers, all existing open tabs are closed when you switch to this mode, but they’re saved and can be restored when you return to normal mode.

  • Opera

    This mode is called private surfing. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N or click the Opera icon in the top left corner and then select New Private Tab or New Private Window under Tabs and Windows.

  • Internet Explorer

    This mode is called InPrivate. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P or select InPrivate Browsing in the Tools menu.

Clearing your browsing history

Go to a neutral page before you decide to clear the cache, as it’s known. If you choose to clear all traces, bear in mind that if anybody else uses the same computer, their history will be deleted as well. That’s why it might be a good idea to just clear your own history.

Clearing your history isn’t entirely safe, either. A computer-savvy user can track deleted information on a computer if they know what they’re doing. That’s why it might be a good idea to browse anonymously, as no web history is saved.

Here’s how to clear your web history:

  • Smartphone

    Information on deleting your history, cookies and cache on Apple products (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) can be found here:
    Clear your browsing history in Safari – Apple Support

     

    Information on clearing your history and browsing privately on a mobile or tablet with Android can be found here:
    View and delete your Chrome browsing history – Google Support

  • Google Chrome

    Clear everything. Click the symbol that looks like a menu with three dots, in the top right corner of your browser. Select “History” and “History”. On the page that’s displayed, go to the “Privacy and security” section and select “Clear browsing data”. A box is then displayed. To delete everything, check all the boxes and select the time range you want to delete. You can choose to delete history from the last hour to everything over all time. Click “Clear data”. Bear in mind that this deletes everything within the time interval you’ve chosen, and you can’t recover the information you’ve deleted.

    Choosing what you want to clear. You can also choose which information you want to delete by selecting the Advanced tab and checking one or more of the boxes. Select a specific time range and then click “Clear data” to delete the selected data within the selected time range.

    Never save anything. To prevent information being saved, go to “Settings” and the “Privacy and security” section. Select “Site settings”. In the “Cookies and other site data” section, you can choose to “Allow sites to save and read cookie data”: drag the slider to prevent this. You can also select “Block cookies and third-party site data” by dragging the slider. In the “Notifications” section, select “Ask before sending” by dragging the slider so that no website displays notifications on your desktop without permission.

  • Safari

    Clear everything. In the Safari menu, in the top left corner, click “Safari” followed by “Clear History”. In the window that pops up, you can choose the time range you want to clear, from the last hour to all history. When you’ve made your selection, click “Clear History”. Bear in mind that this deletes everything within the time interval you’ve chosen, you can’t recover the information you’ve deleted.

    In the Safari menu, you can also select “Preferences”. In the window that pops up, go to the “General” tab and set the “Delete items in history:” menu to “After one day”. The history isn’t cleared straight away in this case, but automatically at the end of each day.

    Choosing what you want to clear. If you want to choose what to delete, go to the menu bar but select “History” instead of clicking “Safari”. Click “View history”. Now you can see which pages are saved in your history. To delete the information on one or more pages you’ve visited, select the line you want to delete, right-click and then select “Delete”. You can also click “Delete” on the keyboard.

  • Microsoft Edge

    Clear everything, or choose what you want to clear. Click the menu button that looks like a star with three dashes, in the top right corner of the browser. Select “History” and click “Clear history”. The “Clear history” menu shows checkboxes and you can choose what you want to clear. When you’ve checked the box, click “Delete”.

    Never save anything. To not save any information while browsing, you can select “Always delete this when I close my browser” under the checkboxes by dragging the slider. This means that the data you’ve selected will never be saved when you browse.

  • Firefox

    Clear everything. Click the menu button that looks like three dashes in the top right corner of the browser. Select “History” and click “Clear previous history”. A list box will appear in the “Clear past history” menu, and you can select “Time range to delete”. Select “All history”. Bear in mind that this deletes everything and you can’t recover the information you’ve deleted.

    Choosing what you want to clear. In “Time range to delete” you can also choose to delete history for a specific time period, from the last hour to the last day you surfed. To choose what to delete, click “Details” and select one or more of the checkboxes. You can choose to clear pages visited and your file download history, form and search history, cache, cookies, passwords, active logins (to an email account, for example) and site-specific settings.

    Never save anything. To not save any information while browsing, go to the menu and select “Settings”. Select “Privacy and security” and go to the “History” section. In the “History/Firefox will:” menu, select the option “Don’t save any history”.If you don’t want the browser to suggest URLs when you start typing in the address bar, go to the Address bar/Show search suggestions in the address bar results menu and select “Nothing”.

  • Internet Explorer

    Clear everything. To remove all private information from a computer, click the gear icon in the top right corner of the browser. Select “Internet options”. This will take you to a box with several tabs, the one you need is called “General”. Click “Delete…” If you want to completely clear your tracks after browsing, select all the boxes and click “Delete”. Bear in mind that this deletes everything and you can’t recover the information you’ve deleted.

    Choosing what you want to clear. If you want to choose what to delete, select one or more of the checkboxes. You can then delete temporary files, cookies, previously visited sites, form data or passwords.

    Never save anything. To prevent pages from being saved while you browse, click “Settings” in the “General” tab. Type 0 in the “History” field where it says “Number of Days Pages Are Saved”. To not save passwords and URLs, click the gear, then select “Internet options” followed by the “Content” tab. Where it says “Complete Automatically”, click the “Settings” button. Uncheck the boxes.