For your own safety – when you search for information or communicate about partner abuse – do not use any computer to which your abuser has access. Your internet, e-mail and document use activities leave traces on your computer that can be found by your abuser. Use a computer to which he/she does not have access, such as at work, in a library, or a friend’s or family member’s computer.If you do use your own computer, complete the following steps to provide some measure of protection for you and to remove most traces of your computer activities. However, be advised that these steps will not remove all traces of your computer activities. So, again, it is best to use a computer to which the abuser does not have access. 1. Do not store passwords; change them regularly Do not use obvious passwords, such as your birthday or your pet’s name. Use passwords that include both letters and numbers. 2. Delete e-mails and files/documents Delete e-mails from the “Send” or “Outbox” and then also delete e-mails from the “Deleted Items” box. In addition, empty the “Recycle” or “Trash Bin” of any documents before shutting down the computer. Make this a regular routine so it is not an unusual action that may trigger suspicion. 3. Clear the search engine Search engines can retain and display past searches. Here is a guide to deleting past searches with Google. With AOL searches can be cleared on the Web Matches pages. Hit the Clear All icon under Recent Search History. The listing of recent searches can be disabled by hitting the Turn Off icon under Recent Search History.Other search engines may also retain and display searches. Check any search engine that you use for this function. 4. Clear cookies, temporary website files and browser history The three kinds of information stored on your computer from your Internet activities are: cookies, temporary website files and your browser history. Cookies are information that a website leaves on your hard drive about your visit to that website. A temporary website file is left on your computer each time you visit a website. One of its pages, usually the home page, is stored “temporarily” on your hard drive. Usually internet browser software retains a list, or history, of all the websites you visit. See our instructions for clearing browser history below; also refer to your software “Help” menu or technical support for further information. Below are more detailed directions for clearing cookies, temporary website files and history for browsers on PC and Mac. You also can refer to your software “Help” menu or technical support. Internet Explorer (Windows)
- Click the ‘Tools’ menu on your browser
- Select ‘Internet Options’
- In the ‘General’ tab, and under the ‘Temporary Internet Files’ section, click ‘Delete Temporary Internet Files’
- Click OK to close the ‘Internet Options’ dialog
- close all your browser windows and restart your browser
Internet Explorer (Mac OS 8 & 9)
- Click the ‘Edit’ menu on your browser
- Select ‘Preferences’
- Choose ‘Advanced’ from the ‘Web browser’ heading on the left side
- In the ‘Cache’ section, click the ‘Empty Now’ button
- Click ‘OK’
Internet Explorer (Mac OS X)
- Click the ‘Explorer’ menu on your browser
- Select ‘Preferences’
- Choose ‘Advanced’ from the ‘Web browser’ heading on the left side
- In the ‘Cache’ section, click the ‘Empty Now’ button
- Click ‘OK’
Mozilla Firefox (Windows)
- From the Menu, select “Tools” and choose “Options”
- Click “Privacy”
- Click “Clear” next to Cookies
- Click “Clear” next to Cache
Netscape & Mozilla Firefox (Mac/Linux)
- From the Menu, select “Edit” and choose “Preferences”
- OS X Customers: select “Mozilla” and choose “Preferences”
- In the window that opens, you will see a list of triangles and topics
- Click the triangle next to “Advanced” and then select “Cache”
- From here, click the “Clear Disk Cache” and “Clear Memory Cache” buttons
- Select “OK”
Netscape (Windows)
- Click Edit, and select Preferences on the Netscape menu bar
- Click Advanced
- Click Cache
- Click the Clear Memory Cache button
- Click the Clear Disk Cache button
- Click OK
Safari (Mac)
- At the top of the page on the toolbar, select History
- Scroll down to Clear History to delete the list of websites you’ve been to
- At the top of the page on the toolbar, select the Safari menu
- Scroll down to “Empty Cache” to clear your browser’s cache. Select “Empty”
- If you want to browse the internet without this information being saved, go to the Safari menu once again and select “Private Browsing…” and then “Okay”
AOL (Windows)
- Click Settings, and select Preferences on the AOL menu bar
- Click Internet Properties (WWW)
- Click Delete Files
- Click OK
AOL (Mac)
- Click Members
- Click Preferences
- Scroll down to Web
- Click Empty Cache
Know Your Rights
Many of the activities involved in forcing someone to marry are illegal: the law protects the victims of any crimes and their right to choose who they marry.
