Smartphones have become as personal as our eye glasses. We take them along wherever we go. Smartphones carry our deepest secrets, our private information and browsing history. But, as personal as you would like your phone to be, someone will always be looking through your stuff, whether it’s your significant other, children, parents or friends. During that intrusion of privacy, you don’t want your deepest secrets to be exploited. This article will discuss how to browse privately with Firefox and clear your history in a zap.
Why it is so Easy to Browse Privately with Firefox for Android
I have used various browsers over the last 23 years, including Netscape. Does anyone even remember Netscape? The single most important feature I would look for in any browser is its ability to wipe out the browsing history with minimal clicks. Firefox wins the gold medal for this feature.
Firefox for Android has couple of settings which makes clearing your browser history easy as 1, 2, 3. Once these settings are enabled and if I have searched for something or visited a page which I don’t want anyone else to see, simply quitting Firefox will get rid of the browsing history in as little as two taps.
Here are the settings to use to browse privately with Firefox:
- General: Under the General Tab, tap on Top Sites and tap on Hide to make top sites hidden. So, if you frequent a page you don’t want others to find out about, this page will not be shown when you startup Firefox.
- Search: Under the settings for search, scroll down to display the Show Search History checkbox. Tap to uncheck this box. This will stop the app from storing your search data which could exploit your search history to others.
- Privacy: Under the privacy settings, the single most important feature you want to enable is to tap on Clear Private Data on Exit and enable it. This will delete your browsing history as soon as you exit Firefox. You also want to uncheck the boxes for Remembering Logins and Master password. This way, your login credentials are not compromised if your phone falls in the wrong hands.
- Advanced: Under the advanced settings, tap on Restore Tabs. Tap to select Don’t Restore After Quitting Firefox. Imagine you quickly quit Firefox to hide a website you were visiting. Now, you open Firefox again just to find the tab being reloaded. You definitely don’t want that.
- Clear Private Data: Under these settings, tap to select every single option here.
That’s it! Feel free to browse to your heart’s content using Firefox and just quit to get rid of your browsing history. It can’t get any better. I prefer Firefox over Chrome as Chrome requires additional taps to clear the History. Every second counts when it comes to being able to clear history in a hurry.
In conclusion, Firefox is absolutely the best browser for Android for private browsing. It doesn’t leave any trails behind for your browsing history to be exploited.
Leave a Reply