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Mozilla Firefox - Security and Privacy

Disable Browser History for Privacy Reasons

SUMMARY: To enhance your privacy, you may wish to disable Mozilla Firefox's website history.

By pressing Ctrl + H or selecting the "History" menu, Mozilla Firefox displays a list of your most recently visited websites. While many find this useful in that they can quickly go back to a recently-viewed website if they forgot its URL, others may be concerned about privacy.

If you want to disable browser history altogether, first prevent Firefox from recording new history items, then clear its list of previously-recorded browser history. To do so:

1. Click "Tools" - "Options".

2. When the "Options" dialog box appears, click "Privacy".

3. Uncheck "Keep my history for at least".

4. Underneath "Private Data", click the "Clear Now" button.

Clearing stored private data in Firefox

5. When the "Clear Private Data" dialog box appears, check "Browsing History". Check or uncheck other options as appropriate if you wish to clear other browsing data.

6. Click "Clear Private Data Now".

Clearing the browsing history in Firefox

7. Click "OK" to close the "Options" dialog box.

This tip was written for Mozilla Firefox v3.0.3. Screenshots and instructions for other versions may vary.