Quick Tip: Clearing Your Browsing History in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge

There are several reasons why you may want to clear your browser's viewing history. You may share a computer or device with family and friends and want to maintain privacy. You may have to use a public computer in a library, for example, to research or plan private activities because you don't own a computer at home.

Whatever your reason, most modern browsers have made it easy to erase the sites you've visited from their memory before you log off. Here's how to do that on four of today's most popular browsers.

Erasing Your Viewing History from Google Chrome

1. Open Chrome on your computer.
2. Click on the three dots at the top right.
3. Choose "History" and then click "History" again.
4. On the left side, click "Clear browsing data."
5. Decide how much history you want to delete.
6. To delete everything, select "All time."
7. Check the boxes next to the information you want Chrome to delete.
8. Finally, click "Clear data."

Deleting Your Browser History from Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox on your computer.
2. Click the hamburger menu button to open the menu panel.
3. Choose "History" and click "Clear Recent History..."
4. Decide how much history you want to delete by clicking the drop-down menu next to "Time range to clear."
5. Choose from "last hour," "last two hours," "last four hours," "current day," or "everything."
6. Use the checkboxes to choose the information you want to delete from your history.
7. Click the OK button. The window will close, and the items you chose will be removed from your history.

Firefox even lets you automate the process of deleting your browsing history. You can follow Mozilla's help page instructions to configure your settings.

Removing Your Browser History from Safari

1. Open Safari on your Mac.
2. Select "History" from the top menu and "Clear History."
3. Click the pop-up menu that appears.
4. Decide how much history you want to delete.
5. Choose from "the last hour," "today," "today and yesterday," or "all history."
6. Click the "Clear History" button.

As a Mac user, Safari is my browser of choice, as it has many built-in privacy settings that I enjoy. If you want to learn more about what settings are available and how to turn them on, read this help page from Apple.

Clear Your Viewing History from Microsoft Edge

1. Open Edge on your computer.
2. Click on the three dots at the top right, "Settings and more," and choose "Settings."
3. Click "Privacy, search, and services" in the settings menu.
4. Under "Clear browsing data," select "Clear browsing data now."
5. Click "Choose what to clear."
6. Decide how much history you want to delete.
7. Click "Clear now" to remove your chosen data.

And that's it! You can follow these simple steps in your browser to remove the browsing history on any computer you use. This way, you can protect your privacy and keep your search history away from prying eyes.

Stay safe!