There's been a recent spate of high-profile cases where the history of social media, Internet browsing or even chats have been used to expose the wrongdoings of certain individuals. While we'd be the first to recommend, if you don't want to get caught doing bad things, then DON'T DO BAD THINGS in the first place, but... your social media, internet browser, and chats can all contain a lot of personal information.
If you're concerned about your privacy, or if you just want to start fresh, you can clean up your data by following these steps. Check out our guide on How to Clean your Social Media, Internet Browser and Chat History below.
Social Media
Facebook and Instagram: To clear your Facebook and Instagram history, go to Settings & privacy -> Settings -> See more in Accounts Centre -> Your information and permissions -> Clear all searches. You can clear the searches from the 'Last hour', 'Yesterday', or 'All time'.
Twitter: To clear your Twitter history, go to Search bar -> Clear all. You can choose to clear your search history, website history, or both.
Facebook and Instagram (app versions are the same)
Twitter (desktop + app)
Internet Browser
Google Chrome: To clear your Google Chrome history, go to More tools -> Clear browsing data. Under the Basic or Advanced tab, you can choose to clear your browsing history, cookies, cache, and more based on certain a time range.
Mozilla Firefox: To clear your Mozilla Firefox history, go to Menu > History > Clear recent history. You can choose to clear your browsing history, cookies, cache, and form history.
Safari: To clear your Safari history, go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy > Remove all history. You can also clear your cookies and website data by going to Safari > Preferences > Privacy > Cookies and website data.
Microsoft Edge: To clear your Microsoft Edge history, go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Clear browsing data. You can choose to clear your browsing history, cookies, site data, cached images and files, and form data.
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Safari
Microsoft Edge
Chats
WhatsApp: To clear your WhatsApp history, go to Settings > Chats > Chat history > Clear. You can choose to clear or delete all chat history, or clear chats individually by going to the chat and tapping on 'More' followed by 'Clear chat'.
Messenger: To clear your Messenger history, you'll have to do it individually. Go to the selected chat > long press for pop-up menu > Delete. You can also choose to archive the chat, mute or block the user.
Messages (SMS app): To clear your Messages history, you'll have to do it individually. Go to the selected chat > long press for pop-up menu > Delete. Please note that the UI for the app can vary between each brand, but the process should be similar as you can delete all SMS messages on a Samsung phone by long pressing a message to select it, then tap All and Delete All. You can also download third-party apps like TrueCaller or Textra to better manage your SMS.
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Messenger
Clean Everything!
To make sure you cleaned everything, you can also do a Factory Reset but this will turn your device into a completely empty or new device without any personal information. All of your data will be cleared this way, but at least you'll have cleaned everything in one go. Here's how:
Android
- Turn on your Android device.
- Go to Settings > System > Advanced > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset).
- Enter your PIN or password, if prompted.
- Tap Erase all data to confirm.
Screenshot from Android-based BlackShark smartphone, yours might look slightly different
iOS
- Turn on your iOS device.
- Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings.
- Enter your passcode, if prompted.
- Tap Erase iPhone to confirm.
Overall, these steps will only clean the history of your device but if you've already sent the info to a different party or individual then they also have a record of those chats and other actions. Likewise, while these tips can be used to clear your history, if you're someone who is looking to check what others have been up to online, these tips can also reveal the history of what they have been doing online.
In any case, we hope that this guide is helpful. If there's any app that we missed or you need more information, do ask in the comments below. As always, stay tuned to TechNave.com for all your tech needs
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