Staying safe Online
You may not want other people to know that you’ve been searching for information or help from organisations such as Safe in Sussex.
While it’s not possible to avoid leaving any trace of your activities online, there are some practical steps you can take to help cover your tracks.
How can an abuser discover your internet activities?
When you use the internet, your internet browser will usually save a ‘history’ trail of the websites you have visited and the searches you have made.
The instructions below will help minimise the chances of someone finding out what websites you have visited.
If you know what browser you are using, then just follow the links to the relevant instructions below.
If you do not know the type of browser you are using, click on Help on the toolbar at the top of the browser screen.
A drop down menu will appear: the last entry will say About Internet Explorer, About Mozilla Firefox, or something similar depending on the browser you are using. You can then refer to the relevant instructions below.
Quick Close
The black Quick Close button on the right of the Safe in Sussex website will quickly close the page and open a new tab. Safe in Sussex will not appear in your browsing history.
If you are using a laptop or desktop, you can keep another website, document or application open and switch to that window or tab quickly if someone comes in and you don’t want them to know what site you are looking at.
Private Browsing (Incognito)
Most commonly used web browsers provide for ‘incognito’ or private browsing – this means that your internet browser won’t store cookies or record your browsing history on your computer, mobile or tablet.
This won’t stop online services from seeing what have been looking at, but it won’t leave any traces of your activity on your computer and so it’s always a useful first step to take
Chrome: Browse in private with incognito mode
Firefox: private browsing – using Firefox without saving history
Browse InPrivate in Microsoft Edge – Microsoft Support
Toolbars
If you use a search toolbar in your web browser, remember that your searched items can be saved as part of your history. The following links will tell you how to delete your searched items from the main search engines:
Passwords and General Security
Passwords/fingerprint or face recognition are a simple way of ensuring that other people cannot log on to your computer, tablet or mobile and access your messages and internet usage. Make sure you use a strong password, with 8 or more characters and use a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Don’t use the same password for every account and store them safely where only you can access them: this might be in a suitable password vault app or on paper in a locked safe at home.
Don’t leave your device logged in – always lock the screen on your computer or mobile device if you leave your device in the middle of using a logged in session.
Multi-factor Authentication – this is where at least one extra level of security is required in order to access your details, including bank accounts. Many companies, especially banks and building societies already do this.
Account Activity Notifications – many websites will now offer to notify you if there is any suspicious activity on your account, e.g. an unknown device.
Be Aware – is anyone watching you or listening in while you log in to your accounts on your devices.
Any email you have previously sent will be stored in Sent Items. If you started an email but didn’t finish it, it might be in your Drafts folder. If you reply to any email, the original message will probably be in the body of the message.
When you delete an item in any email program (Outlook, gmail etc.) it does not delete the item completely – 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.
For further information
Get Safe Online: getsafeonline.org