Clear and delete cookies on your Android phone

Following on from our previous article showing how you can clear cookies on iPhone devices, this quick guide will show you how to clear and delete cookies from your Android phone and mobile browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Samsung’s official Internet browser and more.Deleting the cookies from your mobile browser readily will help protect your online privacy and stops malicious third parties from tracking your movements online when using your Android phone.

If you have heard of Cookies but are unsure what they actually relate to in a digital world. They are small snippets of code loaded on to your Android phone when you visit websites and online stores. You don’t see the content of these Cookies, but your mobile operating system holds them within the code of your preferred Internet browser. Cookies can remain on your phone for quite some time unless you have set up a regular cleanup procedure within the settings of your browser. Sometimes a browser will allow you to automatically clean Cookies at the end of each session, although most require you to clean them manually every now and again.

Companies use Cookies to track certain data metrics and not all are bad. Some can track your browsing habits across multiple sites, reporting back to companies the websites you have visited, searches and more. Recently Apple has taken action to help prevent iOS users from being tracked by enabling the ability to block cross-site tracking. Following on from this implementation, Google has also announced that they will soon do the same. As Google release more information or confirms the launch of the feature, we will update this article accordingly. In the meantime, we will show you how to access and clear and delete Cookies from your Android phone.

Delete cookies from Android browsers

Depending on the browser you prefer to surf the Internet, the way to clear cookies will vary slightly. Here we will provide instructions for the most popular Android browsers, allowing you to take control of your online privacy and remove third-party cookies.

Remove Chrome cookies

1. Open the Chrome browser on your Android device

2. Tap the three vertical dots in the top right-hand corner of your screen

3. Select “Settings” towards the bottom of the displayed menu

3. Select the “Privacy and security” option located approximately in the middle of your screen

4. Select the “Clear browsing data” option at the top of the Privacy and security menu

5. Select the areas you would like to clear from Browsing History – Cookies and site data – Cached images and files. If you are just like to clear, Cookies select the middle option and take the others. Or to clean your Internet browsing history completely, make sure all three are ticked and press the blue “Clear data” button in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.

Delete cookies from the Android Firefox browser

1. Similar to deleting these files on other browsers, select the three vertical dots icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen

2. Select “Settings” at the bottom of the pop-up menu

3. Select “Delete browsing data”

4. Select the areas you would like to clean from your Android phone. Cookies are labeled in the middle of the list. Uncheck any other areas you may not want to clear.

5. Confirm your choice by pressing the Delete browsing data button, and confirm by pressing Delete in the pop-up window that follows.

Samsung Internet browser

1. Select the three horizontal bar icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your phone screen.

2. Tap on the Settings option in the pop-up menu

3. Select the Privacy and Security option

4. Tap Delete Browsing Data under your Personal data

5. Select the areas you would like to clean from your Android phone and press the blue button to Delete Data. Confirm the deletion process in the pop-up window that will appear.

To delete cookies on Android phones using other Internet browsers, the process is like that explained above. Find the main menu and look for Settings, then enter the Privacy and Security area on your phone. Here you are most likely to find an option to clear your browsing data and amongst this your Cookies will be cleaned. If you are still experiencing problems clearing the cookies on your Android phone using a browser not listed here, jump over to the official browser website where you will find instructions to guide you through the process in their support documents.

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