How can someone discover your internet activities?

Internet browsers will save certain information as you surf the internet. This includes images from websites visited , information entered into search engines and a history that reveals sites you have visited.

If you know what browser you are using, then skip to the relevant instructions below. If you don't know the type of browser you are using, click on the three dots on the top right of your screen and select 'Help' from the dropdown menu. One of the entries will say 'About Internet Explorer', 'About Google Chrome', or similar. This refers to the browser you are using. You should then skip to the relevant instructions below.

Google Chrome

Click on the three lines in the top right hand corner. Select ‘more tools’ and select ‘Clear browsing data’. A pop-up window will appear, choose a time range to clear from the drop down list at the top. Ensure all the boxes are ticked, and click on ‘Clear data’

Microsoft Edge

Click on the three dots on the top right of your browser and select Settings. Click on 'Privacy, search and services from he left hand menu. Scroll to 'Clear browsing data' and click on 'choose what to clear'. Select a time range from the time range dropdown, click the browsing history checkbox and click on 'Clear now'.

Internet Explorer

Click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options. On the General page, under Temporary Internet Files, click on Delete Cookies and then OK. Click on Delete Files, put a tick in the box labelled Delete all offline content and click OK. Under History, click on Clear History and then OK. Now look at the top of the window and click on the Content tab, select AutoComplete and finally, Clear Forms.

Firefox

Click on Tools and then Options, then click on Privacy. Click on the Clear button next to Cache and Saved Form Information.

Deleting your browsing history

Internet browsers also keep a record of all the web pages you visit. This is known as a ‘history’. To delete your history, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, and press the H key (Ctrl, Alt and H for Opera). Select any entries that say www.rasasc.org, and delete.

Email

If you receive threatening or harassing email messages, they can be printed and saved as evidence. Any email you have previously sent will be stored in your sent items. If you started an email but didn’t finish it, it will be in your drafts folder. If you reply to an email the original message will be in the body of the message. Print and delete the message if you don’t want anyone seeing your original message.

When you delete an item in any email programme (Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail etc.) it doesn't really delete the item – it moves the item to a folder called Deleted Items. You have to delete the items in deleted items separately. Right click on items within the Deleted Items folder to delete individual items.

Social media

Facebook has introduced a number of changes to its apps to protect users from abusive messages and unwanted contact, as well as tailoring the content you see to match your interests.

• When you block someone on Facebook or Instagram, they will no longer be able to search for your profile.
• In order to make it harder for a blocked person to contact you through a new Instagram account, when you block someone you now have the option to both block their account and pre-emptively block new accounts that person may create.
• Messenger now allows you to ignore a conversation and automatically move it out of your inbox without having to block the sender.
• You can control who can comment on your public posts on Facebook.
• All UK Instagram accounts now have the ability to filter private message requests containing offensive words, phrases and emojis. These can also be added to your comment filter, meaning no comment containing these terms will appear under your posts.
• Instagram’s new Sensitive Content Control tool allows you to decide how much sensitive content shows up in the ‘Explore’ tab.

More information on how to use these controls can be found on Instagram’s blog:

Toolbars

Toolbars such as Google, AOL and Yahoo keep a record of the search words you have typed into the toolbar search box. In order to erase all the search words you have typed in, you will need to check the individual instructions for each type of toolbar. For example, for the Google toolbar all you need to do is click on the Google icon, and choose “Clear Search History”.