hide your tracks

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 have concerns.

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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

After visiting this site

Although it is not completely possible to eradicate your 'footsteps' whilst viewing web sites, there are ways in which you can reduce the possibility of people knowing where you have been on the Internet. The following steps will take you through the process of deleting temporary files automatically stored on your computer when you visit a site and the computer's history store that allows you to view where someone has been that day or week.

Even if this works, the fact you have done this may be noticed by whoever normally uses your computer. So if you are worried this may not be 100 per cent effective, the safest way to find information on the internet, might be at a local library, a friend's house, or at work if you feel it is less important to 'cover your tracks' on a different computer.

These instructions are for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other browsers will have their own settings and they should allow the information to be deleted in a similar way.

1. Click on the Tools button on the Internet Explorer tool bar.

2. Highlight and click on Internet Options at the bottom of the Tools menu. The following dialogue box will appear:

3. Select the General tab.

4. Within the Temporary Internet Files section, click Delete Files button.

5. The following dialogue box will appear asking if you wish to continue with the action. Click OK to delete all files in the Temporary Internet Files. This may take a little while if there are a few files to delete.

6. Within the History section, click Clear History button.

7. Click Yes, you want Windows to delete your history of visited sites.

8. Click the OK button to exit the window.