Internet and email safety

Warning — if you are in danger, do not use a computer that your abuser has direct or remote (hacking) access to. Computer use can be monitored and it is difficult to completely erase what sites you have visited or what emails you have sent. It may be best to use a computer at the public library, a trusted friend’s house or at your workplace.

Clearing your Internet browsing history:

To cover your computer tracks you need to clear your computer’s history — or cache (automatically saved web pages and graphics). Remember to complete this procedure each time you use the Internet prior to logging off. You can clear your history or empty your cache file in your brower's settings:

• For Microsoft Internet Explorer go to: tools, then click on Internet options, then click the box by Delete browsing history on exit and click Ok.
• For Netscape Navigator go to: options, select Network Preferences, then select Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache, click OK.
• For Firefox: Click on Tools, then click on Clear Recent History.
• For Safari: Click on History, then Clear History.

Newer verisions of Internet Explorer and Firefox allow for Private Browsing sessions. In a Private Browsing session, Firefox won't keep any browser history, search history, download history, web form history, cookies, or temporary Internet files.  However, files you download and bookmarks you make will be kept.

Email security:

Choose a password your abuser will not be able to guess so that he/she cannot access your email. Do not pick obvious words or numbers for your password, and always use a combination of letters and numbers for your password. Change your password often.