History of Private Browsing

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Level 1

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History of Private Browsing

I suspect my 13 yr old son has been using the "private browsing" function to hide his browsing practices. For instance, yesterday I know he re-arranged our netflix queue and watched one of their movies on demand. However, when I view the history all I see is a visit to our church's website. Technical support tells me there is no way for me to view the history of "private browsing". Is that accurate?

If so, what type of 3rd party software do you recommend I install to monitor his internet usage even when in private browsing mode?

Thanks for your help!!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 19, 2009 7:26 AM

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Answer 1

iBod

Level 7

29,345 points

Jan 19, 2009 7:31 AM in response to jetjdkdrt

Hi,

Technical support tells me there is no way for me to view the history of "private browsing". Is that accurate?

Yes, that's accurate. It wouldn't be very private if you could see where someone has been 🙂

If you're using a router to connect to the internet, many of them offer logging facilities to record what sites have been accessed. Check the documentation that came with it to see if this is possible.

Also, you could change your DNS settings to use OpenDNS which can also record what domains are being requested:

http://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/solutions/parental/

Accounts with OpenDNS are free.

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Answer 2

Feb 24, 2009 3:35 PM in response to jetjdkdrt

Kudos to you for working so hard parent, and to monitor your son's activities. (and for not believing church is the only thing he's checking out...). I just installed a program called "Blue Coat K-9 Web Protection" It's designed for businesses, but FREE for home use. So far, I'm very impressed. As a parent, you can set all kinds of levels of blocking OR monitoring. I know little about Macs, but suspect you'd find out quickly if this program will overcome the "private" browsing feature. It's worth checking out, and easy to install...

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Answer 3

Mar 6, 2009 10:32 AM in response to jetjdkdrt

Private browsing is not as private as many people think it is. I do not know if this works with previous versions of Safari but in the beta version of Safari 4 google saves your search history even though safari does not. Set up google to allow you to view your search history. Even with private browsing turned on google will save your searches and the sites you visit from that search. You can look at them through google.

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Answer 4

Apr 25, 2009 5:50 PM in response to jetjdkdrt

Another concerned parent here...
And, to be honest, I don't need my wife suspicious of me either. A little transparency never hurts for a good relationship!
My question: Did you ever figure out how to accomplish what you set out to do? Any luck?
I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer as I just recently started searching. I'm surprised more people aren't upset about this!

Thank you so much!

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