The history of visited websites can reveal a lot about you. But don't worry. This won't be an analysis of your dark personality traits, but rather information on how to properly delete your browsing history on your phone.
We don't necessarily have to equate visited websites with facts you'd rather hide from others. What you search for online is your own business, as long as you're not breaking any laws or violating good manners. However, mobile devices can change hands, so for your own peace of mind, it's better to delete certain information from them. Such as your browsing history.
See also: How to transfer your number to Mobile Vikings
What to know before deleting your browsing history on your phone?
Before you start step-by-step learning how to delete data from your phone's history, here's a little pro-tip. You won't need to do this if you use incognito mode. You'll be browsing in private mode, and the addresses of visited pages won't be saved in your device's history. There will be no search phrases, the app won't remember cookies, or any passwords. While it might be a bit inconvenient, every Viking understands what it means to make a sacrifice.
That was information for the future. Now, let's move on to a situation where you have a lot of data stored on your phone that no one else should know about, and you're lending or giving away your smartphone to someone else. What then? You delete everything from your browser. You can do this at any time, without installing any additional apps, knowing dark magic, or praying to Odin. These are a few simple steps that may vary depending on what software is on your device. Before you start, you should also remember to gather all truly essential information in a safe place. Deleting history on your phone is irreversible, and recovering saved information is impossible. Restoring factory settings on your device will remove all personalized data.
How to delete browsing history?
Deleting data doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of inconvenient information. Smartphones today are such versatile devices that they remember your purchases, health issues you've researched, emails you've sent, and account passwords. Sharing this knowledge with a third party is a risk.
We've already mentioned restoring factory settings, which is a complete device reset. On Android, this is the simplest and most effective solution. Go to your phone's settings, select "system" or "general" (depending on the device), then the option for factory settings, and you're done. You can also check cleared cookies in your browsers and then sell or give away your phone. For security, it's a good idea to overwrite the memory with new data after the restart. This will ensure that even data that might have survived in the device's cache is erased.
On the other hand, the browsing history in the "Safari" tab, available on iPhones (iOS), can be erased by using the data deletion command. Using this option will allow you to remove cookies that store saved passwords and website settings, as well as your browsing history. The command is available under the name "delete all data/history." On iOS devices, you can also delete your call log and text messages. Click the "phone" app icon, and through the "recent" option, display the list of calls made. Select the "edit" command and decide whether you want to erase the entire list or just individual calls.
Clearing local history vs. clearing cloud synchronization
When clearing data from an iOS or Android phone, you should be aware that devices are linked to a cloud service, which is a virtual copy of our data. This is very important when switching to a new phone, as you can download the entire backup to your new device. However, if you want to give your smartphone to another user, you should take care of data security.
Android
With an Android device, you first need to sync your Google account so you don't lose your contact list, photos, or videos. Unfortunately, you can't rely on a backup of text messages or social media and game settings. You also need to remove FRP, which is Factory Reset Protection. This is a feature that requires the previously used Google account to reconfigure the phone after a restart. To remove FRP, you need to log out and uninstall the "Find My Device" app.
The next step is to manually remove Google's cloud services from your device settings. It's also a good idea to log out of all Google apps so that no one can access them later. It's possible that your phone has a virtual account offered by the manufacturer (not a service provider like Google). In that case, you should also disconnect from that account. If, after a restart, removing the memory card and SIM card, the phone connects to a different Google address, it means the memory cleaning was successful.
iOS
If you have an iPhone, data is saved in iCloud or via iTunes by synchronizing your phone with a computer. To start the process of disconnecting the device, first remove other paired devices from its memory, such as a voice assistant. You don't need to worry about losing settings. When removing the pairing, a copy is saved in the cloud and will definitely be downloaded to your next device. Then, turn off iMessage in your phone's settings. You should also manually log out of apps that require two-step verification. These can also be potential points of data "leakage." The last thing you should do is use the command to *erase all content and settings*, and then check if the phone has disappeared from the devices assigned to your Apple account.
Regardless of whether your phone contains very private information or harmless photos, someone else can always make use of them. Therefore, before selling your device, take more care in cleaning your phone's memory than you would in replacing the screen protector or finding the original box. Spend the same amount of time deleting data even when you want to discard your phone. You never know into whose hands it might fall as e-waste in one of the many eco-ports.
