There are many things that Internet users want to keep private, ranging from what sites they visit to what information they enter into online forms. The reasons for this can vary, and in many cases they may be for a personal motive, for security, or something else entirely. Regardless of what drives the need, it is nice to be able to clear your tracks, so to speak, when you are done browsing.

Internet Explorer 8 makes this very easy, allowing you to clear the private data of your choosing in a few quick and easy steps.

First, open your Internet Explorer browser.

Click on the Safety menu, located at the far right hand side of your browser's Tab Bar. When the drop-down menu appears, select the Delete Browsing History... option.

Please note that you can use the following keyboard shortcut in lieu of clicking the aforementioned menu item: Ctrl+Shift+Delete

The Delete Browsing History window should now be visible, overlaying your main browser window. The first option in this window deals with Temporary Internet Files. Internet Explorer stores images, multimedia files, and even full copies of webpages that you have visited in an effort to reduce load time on your next visit to that page.

The second option deals with Cookies. When you visit certain Web sites, a text file is placed on your hard drive that is used by the site in question to store user specific settings and information. This text file, or cookie, is utilized by the respective site each time you return in order to provide a customized experience or to retrieve your login credentials.

The third option deals with History. Internet Explorer records and stores a list of all Web sites that you visit.

If you wish to delete any of the aforementioned private data items, simply place a check next to its name.

The fourth option in the Delete Browsing History window deals with Form data. Anytime you enter information into a form on a webpage, Internet Explorer stores some of that data. For example, you may have noticed when filling out your name in a form that after typing the first letter or two your entire name becomes populated in the field. This is because IE has stored your name from entry in a previous form. Although this can be very convenient, it can also become an obvious privacy issue.

The fifth option deals with Passwords. When entering a password on a webpage for something such as your email login, Internet Explorer will usually ask if you would like for the password to be remembered. If you choose for the password to be remembered, it will be stored by the browser and then prepopulated the next time you visit that webpage.

The sixth option, unique to Internet Explorer 8, deals with InPrivate Blocking data. This data is stored as a result of the InPrivate Blocking feature, which informs you about and gives you the ability to block webpage content that is configured to observe your personal browsing history. An example of this would be code that could tell a site owner about other sites that you have recently visited.

Courtesy of Scott Orgera at About.com