Protecting your privacy on the web

The world wide web is a great place to find information. However, while web "browsing" seems much like scanning through pages at your public library, there are some important differences which affect your privacy.

• Most web browsers "remember" the sites you've visited -
  
  Normally, this is helpful feature, but if you are concerned that someone is trying to control the information you see, the browser history would tell them exactly what sites you've visited.
   
• Most web browsers store files you've viewed on your computer -
  
  Again, this is normally a helpful feature which helps to speed up access to web pages. However, if you think that your actions on the internet are being tracked, this could present quite a problem.
   

The easiest and safest way to avoid these potential problems is to use a public computer to access the web. While your browsing history will be recorded on that public computer, it would not be easy for someone to trace it back to you.

If you cannot get access to a public computer, but still have access at home, you can take steps to protect your privacy. For detailed instructions on how to keep others from seeing where you've been on the web, visit

http://privacy.getnetwise.org/browsing/

or if you want to learn about internet privacy in general, go to their main page:

http://privacy.getnetwise.org