Are you worried that someone might find out you have visited this site? We hope that is not the case, but we understand that some users may prefer to remove evidence of their visit.
If so, we want you to be able to use this site as safely as possible, covering your tracks, if necessary. If you are not alone when viewing this site e.g. at work or sharing the house with someone, the quickest way to hide the site is to close the window when someone enters the room.
There is a shortcut on your keyboard to enable you to do this quickly:
- Windows – ALT key and F4
- Apple Macintosh – Apple Key and W
Alternatively you can use the 
buttons at the top and bottom of each page to quickly go to the Google.co.uk website. This may be preferable if you wish to still look like you are actively doing something – but need to hide this website from view.
Once your visit is complete you may wish to remove evidence of your visit completely from your PC – instructions for the most popular browsers can be found below:
Internet Explorer
1. From the main menu bar in the browser, select Tools -> Internet Options
2. Select the General tab if not already selected.
3. Under browsing history, click Delete… to open the window below.
4. Select which elements you would like to remove.
To delete the record of this site from your browsing history, please click Delete history… to remove all the browsing history. Please note that this will remove all of the browsing history, not just this site.
5. Click Close
Firefox
1. Select Tools -> Clear Private Data from the main browser menu bar..
2. Check Browsing History and click Clear Private Data Now.
Google Chrome
1. Click the wrench icon 
on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Tools.
3. Select Clear browsing data.
4. In the dialog that appears, select the “Clear browsing history” checkbox.
5. Use the “Clear data from this period” menu to select the amount of data you want to delete. Select Everything to clear your entire browsing history.
6. Click Clear browsing data.
Mac users: If you don’t see the wrench icon, you can go to the menu bar at the top of your screen and select Chrome > Clear Browsing Data to open the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
When you clear your entire browsing history, the following information is removed from Google Chrome and your computer:
- Web addresses you’ve visited, listed on the History page
- Cached text of pages you’ve visited
- Snapshots of your most frequently visited pages on the New Tab page
- Any IP addresses pre-fetched from pages you’ve visited
Safari
Click on Edit and choose Reset Safari…
You then get this confirmation screen where you can decide what to keep and what needs to go. Keep in mind that once you hit the Reset button there is no turning back.
A quick way to verify it worked is to check the History. Looks like all is clear.
Clearing history in Windows
It’s very important to understand that this method will
only clear the history in your default browser – but if that is all you ever use then this method may be more convenient than trying to follow the methods above:
- Click Start on the desktop.
- Go to Settings.
- Click Control Panel.
- Double-click Internet Options.
- Make sure the General tab is selected.
- Click Clear History in the History box.
- Click OK when it asks if you want to delete all items in your history folder.
- Click OK at the bottom of the General box to exit.
In future if you wish to keep your browsing history private – modern browsers now have settings that allow you to do this, without having to remember to clear the history afterwards. To help you with this we have listed the private browsing options for the most popular browsers below:
Internet Explorer – Private browsing
Internet Explorer’s “private browsing” mode is an excellent way to hide what you’re looking at from prying eyes, but it’s normally hidden under a menu… but we can make it easier to access.
The Normal Way
To open an InPrivate Browsing window, you can either use the Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut key, or just use the Safety \ InPrivate Browsing item on the menu.
And you’ll immediately see a private browsing window, which will leave no traces of your browsing history. Useful!
Firefox – Private Browsing
To start a Private Browsing session:
1. Click on the Tools menu and select Start Private Browsing.
2. The first time you turn on Private Browsing, Firefox will alert you that it will save your current windows and tabs for after you finish using Private Browsing. Click on Start Private Browsing to continue.
Put a check mark next to “Do not show this message again” if you do not want to receive this alert the next time you turn on Private Browsing.
3. You will then enter Private Browsing mode, and the Private Browsing information screen will appear.
When browsing in Private Browsing mode, the Firefox window’s title will show (Private Browsing) during your session.
Google Chrome – Private Browsing
Google Chrome adds in a feature called Incognito which allows users to browse websites without saving history on the computer.
Opening a private or incognito session in Google Chrome
is quite easy, you can either use the shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + N or choose the Open New incognito window from the menu.
The new window that opens up will not store any data to the search and browsing history.
Safari – Private Browsing
Under normal circumstances, Safari retains records of your web browsing activity. It remembers the pages you visit, the data you download, and your web searches. It may also store your personal data in order to automatically complete online forms.
While these features can save time and help you retrace your online steps, there are occasions when you might prefer to leave no footprints — for example, when browsing on a public computer.
The solution is simple: Before you begin browsing, go to the Safari menu and select Private Browsing. When the warning box appears, click OK. Now Safari stores none of the aforementioned info.
What if you decide you need privacy after you’ve been browsing? You have several options: You can remove individual pages from Safari’s page-view history, erase the entire history, or clear all traces of your activity, including any cookies and cache files you may have accumulated.
To review the pages you’ve visited and delete them as desired, go to the History menu and select Show All History. Here you can select pages and clear them with the Delete key. To wipe the entire Safari history, select Clear History from the History menu. For a completely clean slate, go to the Safari menu and select Reset Safari.
Note that the Private Browsing option does not prevent Safari from collecting cookies (the preference files automatically generated by many websites). The Reset Safari option clears all cookies. If you want to delete only certain ones, choose Preferences from the Safari menu, click the Security tab, and then click Show Cookies. You can select and delete individual cookies from the list that appears. Careful, though — if you’re a frequent web user, this list can be very, very long.
Windows 7 – Private Browsing.
If you are using Windows 7, all you have to do is right-click on the icon in the taskbar and choose the InPrivate option. You can also click and hold the left mouse button on the icon, and slide your mouse up… the menu will pop up and you can choose it there.
We really hope that you will never need any of the information here – but just in case you do, then check back once in a while to see if there is anything new.
