How to clear your web history in any browser

The secret to keeping your digital life refreshed: Clear your browser history regularly! This article will guide you on how to easily delete browsing history, cookies and other data in various browsers to protect your privacy.

The browser records your network activities so that you can find pages you have visited before. But at the same time, continuous tracking can also be disturbing, especially when shared computers are available. Fortunately, all mainstream browsers offer convenient clear history functionality.

The data type stored in the browser

It is important to understand these data types and their roles before clearing browser data. You may just need to clear a specific type of data, not all. Different browser terms vary slightly, but usually include the following categories:

First is browsing history: a list of websites and pages you have visited. It can help you backtrack the access path and quickly find your favorite website. Many browsers also provide suggestions when you enter an address based on your history.

[Related: You should start using password manager]

Download History: The list of files you have downloaded is not the file itself. It is just a reference to the file, making it easier for you to find or re-download the file.

Cookie: A small amount of code used by the website to recognize you. For example, weather websites remember the cities you searched for, and shopping websites remember the items in your shopping cart are all cookies at work. Cookies themselves don't harm computers, but some users will regularly clear them for privacy reasons.

Among them, browsers usually distinguish between ordinary cookies and third-party cookies. Third-party cookies track your behavior across multiple websites and are often used for personalized advertising.

Cache: A local copy of web page images and other elements stored by the browser to speed up page loading. Although it may contain some clues about browsing history, it requires some technical knowledge to interpret it.

Most browsers allow you to selectively clear these data types. You can choose to clear all data, or keep cookies and caches, etc. to improve your browsing experience.

Privacy or Invisibility Mode

If you are worried about privacy, you can browse using privacy or incognito mode. After closing the Invisibility window, all browsing history and cookies for the session will disappear automatically. But this doesn't clear all traces, for example, the website you log in to invisible mode will still record your activity.

Incognito mode does not clear the files you downloaded, it only clears the download history.

How to clear history in any browser

All mainstream browsers provide simple clear history functionality:

In Google Chrome browser, click the three dots on the right side of the address bar to open the menu and select Settings . In the sidebar, click Privacy and Security, and then click Clear browsing data. Select the data type and time range to clear and click the Clear data button. If you have synced your browser with another device, clearing history also clears data on other devices. Click Advanced to get more options, including deleting saved passwords.

For Mozilla Firefox users, click three horizontal lines on the right side of the address bar to open the Firefox menu and select Settings . Click Privacy and Security and scroll down to Cookies and Site Data section. Here you can clear the data completely, or manage the data to have a more granular control over what you want to delete. You can also check the option to clear browsing data every time Firefox is turned off.

If you are using Apple Safari on macOS, open the Safari menu and click to clear the browsing history. Select the time range to clear, and then click Clear History to confirm the operation. When Safari clears history, both cookies and cache files are cleared.

Windows 11 users use Microsoft Edge browser, and can click the three dots

on the right side of the address bar, and then select Settings from the menu that appears. In the Privacy, Search and Services tab, find Clear browsing data and click to select the content you want to clear . Select the data type to clear and click Clear now. Finally, in the popular third-party browser Opera, click the Quick Settings icon to the right of the address bar (looks like a stack of three dials). In the menu that pops up, scroll down to

Privacy and Security

, and then click to clear next to browse data. This will open the full settings page of the browser, where you can choose the data type and time range. When finished, click Clear data.

How to clear cookies in any browser

To completely remove traces, in addition to clearing history, you must also clear cookies.

In Chrome, click

Settings

, Privacy and Security and Clear browsing data . Select Cookies and other site data, select the time range (All time), and click Clear data. [Related: Book a trip online? Learn about the information tracking cookies may collect about your family. ]

Mac users use Safari, and click Settings , Privacy and to manage website data in turn. Safari displays a list of all collected information, you can choose to delete a specific item or click to remove all .

In Firefox, click Settings , Privacy and Security, and under Cookies and Site DataSelect Clear Data. Select Cookies and site data and other content you want to delete, and click Clear .

In Microsoft Edge, click Settings , Privacy, Search and Services, and under Clear browsing dataSelect the content to clear. Select Cookies and other site data and click Clear now.

Finally, in Opera, you can use the shortcut key

Ctrl Shift Del (MacOS user replaces Ctrl with Command) to call up Clear browsing dataOptions. Select the Cookies and Site Data options, and then click Clear Data.

This article has been updated. Originally published on August 26, 2017.

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