Browser history records visited websites, allowing quick access to previously viewed pages. Employers and parents can monitor internet activity, while users can delete or turn off the archiving feature for privacy. URLs and easily identifiable names are stored, with settings determining how long records are kept. Privacy features can be turned on, but internet service providers can still track traffic. Users can delete individual or all websites from their history, with parental settings available. Monitoring software can also be downloaded.
A browser history is a record of websites visited by someone using that browser on that particular computer. This archive allows users to quickly access previously viewed pages by opening the history file and selecting the desired page. Browser history also gives employers and parents an invaluable tool for overseeing Internet activity. For users concerned about privacy, history files can be emptied and the settings on most browsers allow this archiving feature to be turned off.
Browsers identify and locate web pages using a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web address. When a page is viewed, the URL is stored in the browser history along with the date the page was last viewed. URLs are not always easy to identify by sight and some contain complex alphanumeric strings. For this reason, easily identifiable names are also included in the history list. Users can quickly and easily access pages they viewed minutes, days, or even weeks ago, depending on their browser settings.
Your browser settings determine how long these records will be stored. Each browser is configured a little differently, but all have the same main features, including history settings. A typical web browser will keep URLs for about two weeks by default. Users can change their browser history settings to keep URLs for only a few days or for several months if they wish.
One of the primary uses of your browser history is for supervising and tracking web activity. Parents can check the history to see which sites have been visited and can even view the pages that have been viewed. Employers could also look at browser histories to make sure that internet activity in the workplace correlates with the job being performed.
Some users may not want to leave a log of sites visited during each browsing session. For this reason, most browsers include a “privacy” feature. While this feature is turned on, your browser will not keep any logs of the pages you view. However, this does not allow users to move without a trace. Internet service providers are able to keep track of all traffic, identifying which sites are accessed from which accounts.
Users also have the option to delete some or all websites from their browser history. Each browser is set up a little differently, but all allow users to clear history completely or delete addresses individually, by date or by website. Some browsers also allow users to delete all addresses viewed within a set time frame, such as the last hour.
Parents and employers may wish to limit access to this feature and any ability to alter browser history. Most browsers include parental settings that require a password before you can make changes to your history. Alternatively, you can download monitoring software that independently logs all web activity.
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