Protecting Your Privacy and Internet Safety

To protect your privacy, the browsers on computers #4, #5, and #6 are set to delete the History, Cookies, and Cache files when the browser is closed. The browsers will not save passwords that you may use on a website. If you download files, they will be downloaded to the Desktop.

To protect your privacy, you should always delete the files that you have downloaded, saved, or created when you finish your computing session on any public access computer.

You may have saved files to the Desktop, where they will be clearly visible, or you may have saved them to the My Computer folder. You can delete files from the My Computer folder or any of its subfolders. Be aware that when you delete files to the Recycle Bin, anyone can open the Recycle Bin folder and restore those files to their original locations.

To delete a file so that it does not go the Recycle Bin and cannot be restored, highlight the file(s) and then hold down the SHIFT key while you press the DELETE key. The files will then be deleted without going into the Recycle Bin.

Before deleting downloaded or "saved" files you may want to copy them to a USB device or a blank CD. Please note that when computers #4, #5, and #6 are shut down, all documents and other items that you have created or saved and left on these computers will be deleted so you should back up files you wish to retain. Consult the Library Computer and Internet Use Policies about copying material to a CD.)

Here are some important guides to Internet safety for parents and children:

For good tips on safe social networking practices, check out: