Safari icon

Browsing privately

When you browse the web, Safari stores information about the websites you visit including the content and any user names, passwords, and credit card numbers you enter. Other people who use your computer can view that information.

If you don’t want this information stored, use private browsing.

To turn on private browsing:

Choose Safari > Private Browsing, and click OK when you see a confirmation message. To skip the confirmation message, hold down the Option key while you choose Private Browsing.

When private browsing is turned on:

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Webpages are not added to the history list.

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The Downloads window is cleared so the name of anything you downloaded won't appear in the list. (To get rid of the downloaded item itself, you must delete it.)

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Information isn't saved for AutoFill, including names and passwords.

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Searches are not added to the pop-up menu in the Google search field.

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Cookies are deleted.

To turn private browsing off, choose it from the menu again, and close any windows you’ve used to view private information. If you don’t close the windows, other users can view those pages using the Back and Forward buttons.

If you neglected to turn on Private Browsing before you browsed, choose Safari > Reset Safari.

Private browsing is always turned off when you open Safari, even if it was on when you last quit Safari.

Related Topics

Resetting Safari