By You might want to think twice the next time you’re feeling a bit aroused and want to check some porn sites out on the go, or you could end up like the young, unfortunate catalyst for what has quickly become a very embarrassing joke. A story from WGN-TV in Chicago was originally meant to show Illinois students how to get juvenile offenses expunged from their records, but a screen grab by the ever-observant folks at Reddit showed a slip-up big enough to make any face red.
The phone of the person demoing the process showed a link to PornHub in their browser history, one of the most popular websites for watching the steamy stuff online. It was only visible for a second, but that was just long enough to make at least one person take notice (and the story blew up big enough to make WGN wipe it from existence).
PornHub caught the story alright, and thought it necessary to remind their fans to clean up the trash the next time they intend to show their phones to someone (especially if that someone is holding a camera to record footage set to broadcast on TVs across Illinois):
Dear loyal users and fappers across the country,
We have had the pleasure of watching the WGN debacle make headlines around the country, and while we wholeheartedly appreciate the exposure as a result of the demo phone in question, we’d like to offer up a little help to users looking to hide their dirty laundry a bit better moving forward.
Yes, we thought that intro was worth quite the chuckle, as well. The letter went on to list instructions for clearing your phone’s browsing history, though they only offered up instructions for those on both Android and iPhone.
Things get a bit more sticky (no pun intended… well, never mind) for those of us on Android. There’s no single browser to post instructions for, though we can start with Google Chrome considering it’s now the default browser in the latest versions of Android.
Clear browsing data in Chrome for Android
You’ll be surprised by how easy this process is, and you likely won’t forget it the next time you need to clear the cobwebs and skeletons out of your phone’s closet before letting someone else get their hands on it. Here’s a quick list of instructions:
- From anywhere within the app, hit the menu button (three dots in the upper right corner).
- Press the “History” button, then proceed to step 3 if you want to clear individual items, or step 4 to clear all items.
- To clear an individual item, you can use the search field at the top to search for specific words and remove URLs one-by-one using the “X” buttons to the right of them.
- To clear all items, hit the big “Clear Browsing Data” button at the bottom of the app. You can also find this button at the bottom of Settings > Privacy.
- Here, you can select to delete browsing history, cache, cookies and site data, saved passwords and any autofill data you have set up. You should be good to go with clearing history and cache alone.
- Press the “clear” button after you’ve made your selection, and wait for the process to complete.
And that should do it. Head back to your history and your phone should be clear of any unwanted browsing data.
Using incognito mode in Chrome for Android
Clearing browsing history is not always the most convenient way to clean up after yourself, so be sure to consider using the Chrome browser’s “incognito” mode the next time you want to visit these types of websites.
Incognito mode will refuse to store any history, cookies or cache for as long as you’re browsing in that mode, so you won’t have to worry about it popping up at unfortunate moments the next time you’re typing in a search term or site address.
It’s worth noting that this does not stop people from snooping on network activity if they have that capability, so you’ll want to avoid visiting any unsavory sites if you suspect your workplace or school is monitoring traffic.
Other Android browsers with privacy features
Of course, Google Chrome is not the only browser out there looking out for your privacy. Here are a few other options we know to have private browsing modes if you aren’t using Chrome (or if your stock browser doesn’t have these features):
- Firefox — individual private tabs
- Opera Mobile — browser-wide privacy mode
- Dolphin — browser-wide privacy mode
- Dolphin Zero — always in privacy mode no matter what
- Maxthon — browser-wide privacy mode
In case you have already done naughty things inside these browsers, these apps have all the same browser history clearing functions you’d expect. It’s different for each one, so be sure to poke around your app’s settings menu to find what you’re looking for.
Other tips for keeping your data private
If none of that is enough, we have a few other key tips to take heed to in order to make sure your sensitive browsing data (or data of any kind) is kept out of view:
- Put a lock code on your phone! This is especially useful for those with kids, as those little tykes tend to swipe mommy and daddy’s phones without asking whenever they want to poke around and have some fun.
- Use an app locker app before giving someone else your phone! Most snoopers tend to do their bidding under the guise of needing to make an important phone call or text, but somehow find their way into your photos and browser. An app locker allows you to hand them your phone while giving you peace of mind knowing they can’t get into specific apps without your password. You’ll find many good options in the Google Play Store here.
- Think about not doing it in the first place! Because why are you watching porn on the bus or at work, anyway? That’s what your house is for!
Keep all of this in mind, and you should be able to go on without having to worry about someone getting a whiff of what you like to indulge in behind closed doors. Any other tips or apps we didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments below!
use Samsung Knox… it’s work perfect!!!
Knox is aimed at enterprise and IT management, not clearing your search history of porn. And even if it is capable of doing so, why would you do it on a phone your company has access to? That’s no different than going to a porn site on a government computer. smh…
By far the most useful article I will read in 2014. Thanks, Quentyn.
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/78/789e6f9383750a686280aafd07e9e6da92da0ecd13c3671129f92b87523592cb.jpg
¯_(ツ)_/¯
http://i.imgur.com/QpWvh58.jpg
And if you’re logged into your Google account, and want to do a google search of the down and dirty or similar topics, make sure you log off first. Google keeps track of what you search for. Granted, you can go in and delete the history (via Google Dashboard), but why have it show up in the first place? Note: going into Incognito Mode may prevent this altogether too, but I’m not entirely certain.
i can vouch for incognito mode…
“three dots in the upper right corner”…..nope, not there.
That’s where it’s located for me on my Gnex running 4.4.2.
Press your menu button.
Poor Samsung.
huh, and I thought iPhone’s blocked that stuff…
I had a close call. I installed Chrome on my work laptop. It’s a federal government laptop (work at NASA). After installing Chrome, I signed in to my Google account, which of course, synced all of my history. Include all the links to the “Big Ass” porn that I can’t stop watching. Lmao.
I quickly deleted the history and change the settings so that it doesn’t sync my history with my personal computer.
U sir, are my hero. U work for NASA, and we share similar interests in “Big Ass” porn. May we salute you. Lol
LMAO, just great!
I did the same thing at work (provincial government), installed chrome and without realizing the damn thing synced, so did my bookmarks… Lets just say I uninstalled quickly, and have not been fired, so it must have gone unnoticed.
Dreaming of future moon missions?
Asteroid and then Mars. Congress decided that the moon is old news (which I agree with).
But I have a feeling you were referring to big butts lol
He dreams of sending a rocket to your Uranus
When I forget to use Incognito mode, I prefer to delete specific items in my history. A completely blank browser history is a dead giveaway to a savvy spouse or SO. Same with your phone log. Delete the specific calls, don’t clear your whole history.
My wife is signed into my Google account on her phone, so I know she sees my browsing history. Sometimes, I look up porn purposely because I know she will check it and say something to me. Lol. Just wanna hear her excuse for going through my stuff lol.
That’s brilliant!
Its been a while since I’ve did it, but an easy and effective way to find out who goes thru ur stuff ;-)
NoFap! This hasn’t been a problem for me in a long long time. Iron will!!
And that is why I only browse for p0rn on my tablet and not my phone. My tablet stays home. Oh, and I browse via Firefox!
use the pornhub app. There ya go – no worries about browsing history
just an app actually on the phone… completely removing the possibility of hiding it from others.
Third party launcher > hide apps. Sorted!
Opening the app would be a major hassle, though. =.[
Hey, if you want something bad enough you’ll do whatever you have to, right? :P
The funny part is that it looks like a chicks phone, lol?! You don’t see that very often. :P
Probably more often than you think, they’re just better at hiding it. Hahah.
That’s a scary thought. =.S
my good friend was showing off his original droid when it first came out. he had apparently been looking at some sites so when his coworker brought up the internet a porn site was what came up. always clear your history.
My sister inlaw can use this tips.her phone was bot working right and ask me to see what was wrong,i open the browser and boom loads a porn page i close the window and again porn site. She had like 3 porn site open and two dating slut pages, now i cant even look at her the same
lol
@quentyn:disqus do u have an account on Boxden by any chance?
Why hide it? We’re sexual creatures; everybody does it. I hate hypocrite prudes far far far more than honest fappers.
pornhubDOTcom & beegDOTcom areeeee AWWWEEEESOME. Everything is awwweeesome!
Hehe good to see beeg getting some rep, they have consistently good quality clips.
I nearly made a similar comment, until I thought about it. We all peruse porn from time to time; we all have sex from time to time. I don’t want to see your porn on mainstream media, any more than I want to see your sex on maintstream media.*
*Attractive females excluded.
Being commonplace isn’t reason enough to parade something around. The way I see it, this is just something to toss in the blooper reel and forget about.
just download the PH mobile app…DUH!
Lol Samsung also saves the Web address on your keyboard too so don’t forget to delete that too!!
porons..
“Dear loyal users and fappers across the country”
I love the letter’s intro.
Wasn’t Dolphin Zero introduced at one point? Just sayin’…
If you use incognito mode [Chrome], or your brower’s equivalent, you needn’t worry about such trivial things as clearing history.
Try incognito and xnxx! Happy pulling and stretching! Lol
Don’t go to sites like that, and you will have nothing to hide, not that you can hide it from the big guy upstairs.