Web browsers if not protected with proper privacy settings can leak your private information and leave a trail of what all you have been doing on the web. Today we will discuss the privacy settings in Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer Privacy Settings
Internet Explorer in Windows 10/8 offers several powerful, yet easy-to-us privacy tools to help better protect your privacy while surfing on the Internet. Let us have a look at them and see how you can set them to best protect your privacy.
InPrivate Browsing
InPrivate browsing, when enabled, will delete your search history, passwords, and the web page history, as soon as you close that tab. Use the shortcut keys Ctrl+Shift +P to start InPrivate browsing on the fly.
To enable it, go to the Settings icon on the top right corner of your browser and click on Safety >InPrivate browsing.
This will open a new window with an indicator showing InPrivate in the address bar. Enabling the option prevents the browser from storing any kind of data about your browsing session, for example, Cookies. Temp files, History and much more. You can exit from the InPrivate mode anytime, just by closing the tab.
Delete Browsing History
In case you don’t want to use the InPrivate mode, you can manually delete the browsing history, after closing the tab.
Click on Settings icon > Safety >Delete Browsing History. The shortcut keys to delete the browsing history is Ctrl+Shift+Del. Select the required options in the new pop-up window and click on Delete button.
Suggested Websites
Not many may know about this, but Internet Explorer sends all your browsing history to Microsoft if the option of ‘Enable Suggested Sites’ is checked in your Internet Options.
To disable this, go to Settings icon > Internet Options > Advanced > Uncheck the option Enable suggested sites.
Tracking Protection
Using Tracking Protection prevents the websites tracking from your details. If the Tracking Protection List if enabled in your Internet Explorer, the browser sends a Do Not Track request to the website you visit and also blocks the third party content from the websites listed in your Tracking Protection list. The sites may choose to, however, respond to or ignore your request.
To enable this option, go to Settings > Safety > Tracking Protection > Select your personalized list > Click on Enable.
SmartScreen Filter: Do not forget to turn ON the SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer. It warns you if the website you are visiting, contains malicious links or any other crapware.
To turn on the SmartScreen filter, go to Settings and click on Safety > Turn On SmartScreen Filter.
By changing the privacy settings in Internet Explorer, you can enjoy private, safe and secure web browsing.
