Browsing the internet and using its facilities is something all of us do without even being aware of it, and all of it has become an inseparable part of our lives. We visit various websites, social media services, and online shopping stores daily. All of these websites we visit are recorded in the browser history, and some even tend to form cookies and caches. However, this poses a threat of data leaks and puts our privacy on the line in more than just one way. That’s why in this article, we’ll be going over some ways using which we can block a website from appearing in our browser history, hence not exposing our privacy and data to any potential threats.
Why Prevent A Site From Appearing In Browser History?
It’s about privacy. We don’t want others to see where we go, which Website we visit, and how we interact with them. So if someone else checks your browsing history, they do not come to know about the websites you open. It’s not good or bad, but about your choice of using the internet without telling anyone about it.
Blocking a Website From Appearing in the Browser History
Now, there are multiple ways to approach this issue. Most of them can be done easily in our primary browser application itself. You can’t block a website from directly appearing in the browser history.
- Using Privacy Mode Or Incognito Mode
- Deleting Cookies, Caches, And Browser History
- Browsing Using Online Proxy Sites
- Browser Specific Actions
Anyone can set this up; you don’t need an administrator account.
1] Using Privacy Mode or Incognito Mode
Privacy mode or Incognito mode is one of the best features introduced ever since browsing came into being. Privacy mode, as the name suggests, is a feature that allows the user to create an entirely isolated browsing session in their browser application that doesn’t record browsing history at all.
Here are all the advantages of Private Mode or Incognito Mode
Browsing activities while in Privacy mode or Incognito mode aren’t saved in your device, browsing history, or user account (your Google account). This ensures security and privacy in a lot of ways.
It is impossible to trace the websites one has visited in one’s private browsing session, keeping one’s privacy safe from any dangers. Once you turn on the incognito mode, every tab or browsing window you open will be a part of that private browsing session, and none of that data will be recorded.
Cookies, website data, or your browsing history, none of that is saved on your device or on your browsing application. Privacy or Incognito modes are available in all browsing applications, such as Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, etc.
You can access it via the browser settings or the toolbar of the browser application. If you’re using a browsing application that doesn’t have a privacy mode, we suggest you immediately switch your browser for security reasons.
2] Deleting Cookies and Caches And History
There may be reasons why one may find using Privacy mode or Incognito mode inconvenient. After all, it doesn’t record anything, and you’ll have to enter your credentials all over again when logging into a website. It’ll be a drag to do all that, especially if the website in concern is the one you have to access frequently.
In this case, you can rely on manually deleting unnecessary cookies and caches and browsing history from your browser. Doing so will prevent your browsing history from getting tracked.
In Chrome and Brave, you can do it under browser history from the history section in the triple dot menu. To delete cookies and other Website data, head to the browser settings and go to the privacy and security section, where you will see all the saved data.
You can easily find them under browser settings if you use a different browsing application. This way, you can manually select specific Cookies and Caches and Browsing history to get rid of. You don’t have to clear all of your browsing data or use Incognito while protecting your privacy and data.
3] Browsing Anonymously
If you believe in keeping your internet traffic private, you must’ve heard about VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) which help you to change your IP address to that of a server located in a different country. Online Proxy websites facilitate the same thing, more or less.
The Online proxy websites will not only allow you to change your IP address, and access blocked sites, but they will also allow you to mask the address of the website you are visiting that of the proxy Website. So what appears in the browser history will be the address of the proxy Website and not the actual Website you’ve visited.
4] Browser-Specific Actions
You can simply remind yourself to clear your browsing history every once in a while by yourself to make sure that a website doesn’t appear in your browsing history. However, some browsers have an inbuilt feature that stops them from recording browsing history or automatically deleting it whenever the browsing application is closed.
This may differ from browser to browser. In the case of Chrome, you have to manually clear your browsing history, whereas, in Firefox, you can tell the browser not to record your browsing history.
Conclusion
This article discussed several ways to Block a Website from Browser History data.
While using Incognito mode is the easiest option for most of us, it may not be the most convenient. That is precisely why we went over several alternative ways we can stop websites from tracking our location and browsing history and also from getting recorded as well.
We can never be too safe when using the internet, and taking extra precautionary methods is always good. With that being said, we’ll wrap up this article with the hope that this presentation was of help to you.
Is It Legal To Use VPNs?
It is completely legal to use VPNs in most countries of the world; however, if you visit a Website with malice and do something not permissible in the law of your country, the trouble will be all yours.
How To Stop Ads From Tracking My Activity On The Internet?
You can completely prohibit websites from accessing your cookies, tracking you with browser extensions, and turning off tracking in other privacy-oriented browsers like brave. However, some sites may not function properly due to this.
