History,+Private+Browsing,+and+Cookies

History Settings
In Firefox, you can click on Firefox on the Menu Bar and select Preferences in the drop down. The window below opens (but will probably be on the General tab) Click on the Privacy tab. Here you can create the settings you want for your browsing history. (You can also clear cookies through this window. More on that below.)

Firefox/Privacy/History window

Private Browsing
If you prefer, instead of creating settings for history, you can turn on Private Browsing. (Remember, other users, even young ones, can turn on Private Browsing during their Internet sessions so no history is recorded as well.) Private Browsing means that no pages will be added to the list of sites in the History menu. Nothing you enter in text boxes or Search bar will be saved in Form autocomplete. Now new passwords will be said. No files you download will be in the download list after you turn off Private Browsing. Cookies will not be stored. Not temporary Internet Files of cached files from web pages will be saved until you turn off Private Browsing. However, Private Browsing does not make a user completely anonymous. The internet service provide, sites, and em ployers can still track the pages visited.

To Turn on Private Browsing Click on Tools on the Menu Bar. Click Start Private Browsing.

After you click, you get the following window: You can then just start using the Internet and have no history, cookies, forms, or temp (downloaded) files save.

To turn off Private Browsing, go back to Tools.

NOTE While an employer or the ISP would have access to data stored on the server connecting a local PC to the Internet, you don't so if your child uses Private Browsing, tracking thire Internet history would be difficult. The data employers and ISPs use to track which pages are visited would be on those servers and not on the local system. In addition, private browsing does not eliminate traces left on the computer if a plug-in is involved in the use of a web page (Flash, Adobe Reader, etc.) as those traces fall outside of Firefox's control.

Cookies
A cookie can be used for authentication, storing site preferences, shopping car[|t] contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing text data. Skip down to Managing Cookies if this is more than you want to read. :-)

The following is from http://www.wisegeek.com/topics/computer-cookies.htm - a=532&t=white-background&k=Computer%20Cookies&b=4&p=0. It is one of the best simple and straightforward explanation of cookies I've found.

"A computer cookie is a small text file which contains a unique ID tag, placed on your computer by a website. The website saves a complimentary file with a matching ID tag. In this file various information can be stored, from pages visited on the site, to information voluntarily given to the site. When you revisit the site days or weeks later, the site can recognize you by matching the cookie on your computer with the counterpart in its database.

There are two types of computer cookies: **temporary** and **permanent**. Temporary cookies, also called session cookies, are stored temporarily in your browser's memory and are deleted as soon as you end the session by closing the browser. Permanent cookies, also called persistent cookies, are stored permanently on your computer's hard drive and, if deleted, will be recreated the next time you visit the sites that placed them there.

Cookie technology addressed the need to keep track of information entered at a site so that if you submitted a registration form for example, the site could associate that information with you as you traveled through the site's pages. Otherwise, every time you clicked on a different page in the site, establishing a new connection, the site would lose the information in reference to you, forcing you to re-enter it. A temporary cookie solved this problem in the short term by setting aside a little bit of browser memory to save information. However, once the browser was closed, all temporary cookies were lost. Return surfers were not recognized and registration information had to be re-supplied at every visit. Persistent cookies solved this problem. They allowed a site to recognize a surfer permanently by transferring a text file with a unique ID tag to the visitor's hard disk, matching a file on the server. On subsequent visits, the browser automatically handed this cookie over, allowing the site to pull up their matching cookie. Now cookies could persist for years.

Both temporary and permanent computer cookies can be used for many helpful purposes. Automatic registration logon, preserving website preferences, and saving items to a shopping cart are all examples of cookies put to good use. But permanent cookies also resulted in unanticipated uses, such as Web profiling.

Websites began keeping track of the surfing habits of its visitors, using computer cookies to log when an individual visited, what pages were viewed, and how long the visitor stayed. If he or she returned at a later date, the visitor’s cookie triggered open the log of previous visits and was amended to include the new visit. If personal information was offered on any of these visits, name, address and other information was associated with the "anonymous" ID tag, and consequently, the entire profile.

As a result of public outcry in response to surreptitious profiling, cookie controls were placed in post 3.x browsers to allow users to turn cookies off — options that were not available in 1995 when permanent cookie technology was first embedded into browsers without public awareness or knowledge of how they could be used. Cookie controls also allow user-created lists for exceptions, so that one can turn cookies off, for example, but exempt sites where computer cookies are put to a useful purpose. Third-party cookies often have their own controls, as they are normally tracking cookies placed by marketers. Cookie contents are encrypted and are only readable by the site that placed them"

Managing Cookies
You can find out information about cookies on your computer and delete one or all cookies. Flick on Firefox on the Menu Bar. Click Preferences from the dropdown. Click on the Privacy tab (same path you took to get to History). On this window your can decide to accept third-party cookies or not and how long to keep them. You can also click on the Show Cookies button. The little window on the right below opens. You can see the list of cookies on your computer, click on one to get more info about it and decide to remove it or all cookies. Firefox/Privacy/History/Cookies window

Optional - While you're on the Preferences window, you can also check under Advanced and see if the "Tell me when a website asks to store data for offline use box is checked.

**Cookie, Pop-up, and Other Permissions for a Particular Page**
While you are on the web page you want to set permissions for, click on Tool on the Menu Bar. Click Page Info in the dropdown. Click the Permissions tab. You'll get the window below and can change Set Cookies to Block if you wish.