Assuming you’ve been using the iPhone’s built-in web browser – Safari – then clearing the data is simple. Just bear in mind that your history will be deleted for all devices signed into the same Apple ID, and cookies and other browsing data will also be wiped. That may be a good thing, but it’s a slight shame that it’s an ‘all or nothing’ approach and you can’t choose only to delete certain things or the history for only the last hour, day or week. To do it, open the Settings app and scroll down until you find Safari. Tap it and then tap on Clear History and Website data.
A warning will tell you that history will be gone from all your devices, but tap on Clear History and Data and your digital footprints will be erased. Of course, this only deals with Safari. If you have other browsers installed, you may want to delete your history in those too.
How to delete browsing history in Chrome on iPhone
In Chrome, for example, tap the three vertical dots at the top-right of the screen. Scroll down until you see Privacy and tap on it. Now tap Clear Browsing Data. In the screen that appear, you need to select ‘Browsing history’ as this is unticked by default. Usefully, unlike with Safari, Chrome allows you to keep things such as Cookies and website passwords when removing the list of sites you’ve visited.
How can I browse privately on iPhone?
In future, if you want to keep your browsing private in Safari then use the Private mode before going to a website. To do that, tap the two squares icon (bottom right) and then tap Private on the left.
This means Safari won’t keep a record of the sites you’ve visited or searches you made during that session, nor save any Autofill data. That information is ‘forgotten’ as soon as you close a tab in Private mode. Alternatively, you could use a completely different browser such as Firefox Focus. This is dedicated to private browsing, and never remembers anything when you close the app down. However, note that any ‘private’ browsing mode isn’t entirely private. Your ISP, for example, will still be able to see which sites you’ve visited. To stop that happening, you need to use a VPN. Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.
