How to clear the Browser History

Searching for information, shopping, chatting, booking a holiday or streaming videos – for many these are everyday activities. And as is the case for virtually everyone, what we do in our everyday life leaves behind traces. However, our internet traces are far easier for third parties to analyse, regardless of whether we are aware of it or happy with the fact. Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera accept our inputs, establish a connection to the target page, and clearly present the desired information. In the default setting, however, most browsers also cache vast quantities of data that reveal a great deal about our surfing behaviour. In this article, you’ll learn which information this concerns and how you can delete your browser history.

Even though internet/browser history and the deletion of this data are often mentioned, in most cases it is the entire browser cache that is actually meant. The browser history is actually merely one of many items that are stored in the web client’s cache. Other typical data categories include the download history, entered login data and passwords, as well as specific website data and images. The purpose for storing this information is to improve user convenience and the browsing experience of the user – for example, by shortening load times and automatically executing logins. However, there is also the risk that the cache, and with it all the cached information, will end up in the wrong hands.

For this reason, it is recommended that you clear your browser cache periodically in order to keep the risk potential low. If you use the browser on a device that is publicly accessible – in an internet café, for example – you should, as a matter of principal, always clear all data including the history as soon as you’ve finished using the internet. This also applies if you merely cache the history of visited websites: even just by viewing the pages you’ve accessed, attackers may be able to obtain sensitive information about you.

Moreover, you should also clear the history if you privately share the PC with other people, and don’t want them to know which websites you recently accessed. Otherwise, a planned birthday surprise, for instance, could be found out sooner than you would like.

Usually, the caching of history and website data in a browser is activated by default. If you have not made any changes to the settings beforehand and have not configured the web client to automatically delete all browser data as soon as it is closed, this may have already stored a decent collection of visited websites and login data. You’ll see, among other things, that you only have to type the first letters of a website you regularly visit before your browser automatically suggests the complete domain address.

How exactly you can clear the history depends on which browser you use. In the following sections, you’ll find instructions for the most important internet browsers that show you step-for-step how you can delete your history or selectively empty your cache.

The process for deleting history is very similar with Firefox Mobile:

1. Tap the menu button (“Hamburger menu icon”) that according to your setup is located either at the lower or upper screen margin.
2. Choose the “Settings” option – on some devices you’ll have to first tap “More” to get to this.
3. Android users now choose the “Delete Private Data” item that can be found in most versions under “Privacy & Security”. Press this button and then select all the items that you would like to remove from the browser’s cache before you tap “Delete Data”.
4. As an iOS device user, tap on “Data Administration” in the settings. Next to “Visited Sites” and all the other items that you would like to delete, slide the control to the right, and then finally tap on “Delete Private Data”.

Safari is the browser belonging to the large American company Apple, and for many years has been the default browser of its devices, such as the iPhone, the iPad, and the MacBook. What’s more, Apple computers are also supplied with the internet browser as standard. Should you wish to delete the browser history, however, how you should proceed depends on whether you are using a Mac or an iOS device.

If you use Safari in macOS, you can clear the history and all other website data as follows:

1. Click on “Safari” in the upper menu bar and choose the “Clear History” item in the opened menu. Alternatively, you can also press “History” and then “Clear History and Website Data”.
2. Choose for which time period you would like to delete the browser history, and to finish, click once more on “Clear History”.

If you are using the Apple browser on an iOS device, the following steps are necessary for clearing your history:

1. Access the Settings.
2. Look for “Safari” and tap on it.
3. Scroll to the item “Clear History and Website Data” and tap on this.
4. Confirm the deletion process by pressing on “Delete History and Data”.

Since 2012, Samsung has been supplying its smartphones and tablets with its own browser, Samsung Internet (for Android), as a standard feature. Because many users find this perfectly adequate for surfing the internet, it enjoys – like Edge – a considerable number of users worldwide. In the Android browser as well, you can delete browser history and remove other cache data, such as passwords:

1. Open the browser menu by tapping on the three-dotted symbol.
2. Select the “Privacy” menu item.
3. Press “Delete Browser Data”.
4. Place a checkmark for “Browser History” and all the other items that you want removed from the cache and tap “Delete”.