Privacy & Web Safety
We take your privacy very seriously. If you are concerned that someone may be able to find out you have visited our site, here are a few tips that may help you hide this information.
Computers store a lot of information about the websites you visit, emails and instant messages you send, web-based phone calls you make, online purchases and banking, and many other activities.
If you are worried that someone might check what you are looking at or doing on this computer, don’t use it to get help and advice. Instead, use a computer in a library, at a trusted friend’s house or an internet café.
Keep using your computer for your routine activities, such as looking up the weather or checking what’s on TV.
Clearing your web browser’s history
You can clear some evidence of sites you have visited (and any searches you have done) by clearing your web browser’s history.
However, this won’t remove all records from your computer’s memory and someone in your home would not have to be a computer expert to find the remaining records.
Remember
If clearing your browser’s history isn’t something you do regularly, DON’T do it, as this might arouse suspicion.
How to clear your browser history:
Internet Explorer (PC): Pull down the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Click on the 'Delete Files' and 'Clear History' buttons on the general page.
Firefox (PC and Mac): Pull down Tools menu and select ‘Clear Private Data’. Tick ‘Browsing History’, ‘Download History’, ‘Saved Form and Search History’, ‘Cache’ and ‘Authenticated Sessions; then click on ‘Clear Private Data Now’.
AOL: Pull down Members menu, select Preferences. Click on WWW icon. Then select Advanced, and click 'Purge Cache'.
Safari (Mac and PC): Pull down the Safari menu, select 'Reset Safari', click on 'Reset'. (Safari also has a 'Private Browsing' option which you can choose before you browse and turn off afterwards. To use this, pull down the Safari menu, select 'Private Browsing', and click OK when you see a confirmation message. To turn private browsing off, choose it from the menu again, and close any windows you’ve used to view private information.)
Google Chrome: Pull down the tools menu and select ‘History’ and click on Clear all browsing data’. This brings up a new window that will help you specify what you would like to delete. Google Chrome also allows you the opportunity to ‘go incognito’ by pressing ctrl shift and n together – this enables you to view pages that won’t appear in your browser history or search history, or leave other traces after closing them
During your face to face sessions, you may be concerned about what you are going to say and whether what you say is going to be told to anyone else. Anything that is talked about in your face to face sessions is generally confidential within the organisation and will not be shared with anyone external without your permission.
These are the only times when confidentiality may be broken:
If you tell us that a child or vulnerable adult is at risk of harm.
When there is a serious risk of harm to you.
When there is a court order or other legal requirements.
If it is felt that confidentiality needs to be broken, we will generally try and discuss this with you first