Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited
  • Get help
    • Criminal charges
    • Bail
    • Child protection
    • Family law
    • Housing and renting
    • Family violence and safety
    • Fines
    • Deaths in custody
    • Problems at work
    • Custody Notification Service
    • Crisis support
  • Get help
    • Get help
    • Criminal charges
    • Bail
    • Child protection
    • Family law
    • Housing and renting
    • Family violence and safety
    • Fines
    • Deaths in custody
    • Problems at work
    • Custody Notification Service
    • Crisis support
  • Reforming the system
    • Policy submissions and publications
    • Closing the Gap
    • Justice reinvestment
    • The Bugmy Evidence Project
    • Family Is Culture
  • Reforming the system
    • Reforming the system
    • Policy submissions and publications
    • Closing the Gap
    • Justice reinvestment
    • The Bugmy Evidence Project
    • Family Is Culture
  • News
  • Get involved
    • Take action with us
    • Career opportunities
    • Volunteer
    • Become a monthly donor
  • Get involved
    • Get involved
    • Take action with us
    • Career opportunities
    • Volunteer
    • Become a monthly donor
  • About
    • About us
    • Our history
    • Our strategic plan
    • Annual reports
    • Governance
  • About
    • About
    • About us
    • Our history
    • Our strategic plan
    • Annual reports
    • Governance
  • Contact
    • Get in touch
    • Office locations
    • Feedback and complaints
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Get in touch
    • Office locations
    • Feedback and complaints
  • DONATE
Print

Tips to browse safely online

Here you'll find some basic tips to protect your privacy and reduce the ability for people to see what you do online.

The 'Close this site' button

Some pages on this website include a 'Close this site' button. Use this button to quickly hide what you are looking at. You might find this helpful if someone comes into the room or looks over your shoulder and you don't want them to know what you've been looking at.

When you use the 'Close this site' button, it immediately closes this website and opens the Google search page in a new window.

You can also quickly close this site by using the ESC button on your computer keyboard. It immediately closes this website and opens the Google search page in a new window.

The 'Close this site' function doesn't delete your browser history. This means that if someone checks your browser history on your computer or mobile device, they will be able to see everything you looked at on our website.

Clear your browsing history regularly

Web browsers keep track of your online activity through your browser history, cookies and caching. This is so you can find websites you've visited before, but it also means other people can see this data.

To protect your privacy, it's a good idea to clear your browsing history regularly. You can choose to delete everything or only some things.

Find out how to clear your browsing history in:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari
  • Safari on iPhones or iPads.

For other browsers and devices, check the provider's website.

Use private browsing

Private browsing is an easy way to hide your browsing habits. If enabled, when you close your browser, all browsing history and stored cookies from future browsing sessions will automatically disappear.

However, the sites you visited during your current browsing session will record your browsing activity. Your internet service provider will also record this information. Any files you download using private browsing won't be deleted, so other people can access them if they use your device.

Find out how to enable private browsing in:

  • Internet Explorer
    • In the 'Tools' menu (the cog icon on top right of the browser window), select 'Safety', then 'InPrivate Browsing'.
  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari
  • Safari on iPhones or iPads.

For other browsers and devices, check the provider's website.

Accounts and passwords

Don't let your browser auto-save your passwords. While the auto-save function may be convenient, it gives anyone who uses your device access to your accounts.

When you are using an account with a password (e.g. your social media or email account), always log out before leaving the website.

Using other computers and devices

If you are worried about someone looking at your internet use, consider using a computer or device that they can't access.

This might be a computer at your local library, your work computer, or a family or friend's device. But again, don't auto-save any passwords and make sure you log out of your accounts when you've finished using the computer.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This advice is from "Tips to browse safely online" by The State of Queensland.
The content is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license.
© The State of Queensland 2024.
What is this?
To leave this site quickly, click the 'QUICK EXIT' button or press 'ESC' on your keyboard. You will be taken to google.com
Hide Show Quick Exit

7+ ways to be an ally this Reconciliation Week

27 May 2021

 

National Reconciliation Week runs from 27 May to 3 June. This year's theme is 'More than a word: reconciliation takes action'.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and organisations are already taking strong and decisive actions towards justice and equity – but reconciliation can’t be achieved until non-Indigenous Australians take action by getting behind us.

The National Reconciliation Week website suggests 20 actions for reconciliation – these are things that every non-Indigenous person can do to support their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander friends, neighbours and co-workers.

As the country’s first Aboriginal legal service, below we’ve suggested our own actions for each day of National Reconciliation Week. Each of these are focused on law and justice.

Please get involved and share what you learn in conversations with your friends and family, and on social media with the hashtag #NRW2021.

 


Thursday 27 May: Help us #RaiseTheAge

Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved.

But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a prison.

It’s time for federal, state and territory governments to do what’s right and change the laws to raise the age of legal responsibility, so children as young as 10 can’t be sent to prison.

Kids belong in classrooms and playgrounds, not in handcuffs, courtrooms or prison cells.

→ Visit raisetheage.org.au to learn about this issue and sign the petition.

 

 

Friday 28 May: Visit The Guardian’s Deaths Inside database

In collaboration with NATSILS (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services), The Guardian has tracked every known Indigenous death in custody in every state and territory since 2008.

Comprehensive data on deaths in custody is hard to find, so The Guardian’s work on this interactive database is hugely important. You can browse the publicly available details on each person whose life has been tragically lost and access news stories on their deaths.

→ Visit the database and spend some time honouring the memories of people who have died in prisons and police custody.

 

 

Saturday 29 May: Learn about justice reinvestment

Have you heard of justice reinvestment? It’s the concept of taking some of the money we spend every day on prisons and ‘reinvesting’ it into communities.

By investing in the resources that make our communities better places to live – stuff like education, housing, childcare, community groups – we can improve people’s lives and stop them from coming into contact with the legal system in the first place.

That’s a much better solution than funnelling billions of public dollars into prisons, which are proven to entrench disadvantage rather than helping people.

→ Visit the Just Reinvest website to learn how justice reinvestment can change lives and save money. Watch the video below to see how it’s already working in Bourke, NSW.

 

 

Sunday 30 May: Read Bringing Them Home

The Bringing Them Home report was published in 1997, after a huge national inquiry into the experiences of the Stolen Generations.

More than 20 years later, the report remains just as powerful as ever. It contains personal testimony from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were taken from their families; some of them managed to reunite later in life, but many never did. Sadly, the lessons of Bringing Them Home remain relevant today because many of its recommendations were never implemented by government.

Some people say the Stolen Generations never ended. In 2021, Australian authorities remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families at 11 times the rate of non-Indigenous children.

→ Access the Bringing Them Home report online and read the stories of Stolen Generations members.

 

 

Monday 31 May: Sign our petition to stop strip-searching Aboriginal kids

In 2019-20, NSW Police strip-searched 96 children. About 21% of those kids were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Forcing a child to remove their clothes is deeply intrusive, disempowering and humiliating. It is unjust, it violates children’s rights, and it undermines the relationship that police have with children.

In most cases, these searches result in a “no-find” – yet the child is left with lasting trauma and distrust.

→ Sign our petition to demand police stop strip-searching Aboriginal children.

 

 

Tuesday 1 June: Email your MP to stop deaths in custody

Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, at least 475 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police and prison cells, or after interactions with police. Many of those Royal Commission recommendations are still not implemented.

State and Territory MPs have the power to change the laws that push Aboriginal people, including children, into prisons. They can implement the recommendations, independent oversight and accountability that could save lives.

That's why it is so powerful to write to your local MP and demand action. Change the Record have provided a useful template that enables you to email your MP in just a few clicks.

→ Email your local MP now.

 

 

Wednesday 2 June: Donate to the ALS

By giving to the ALS, you can ‘pay the rent’ and provide effective legal support for Aboriginal people.

Support from allies in the community empowers us to set our own agenda, speaking out fearlessly for Aboriginal rights and creating Aboriginal-led solutions to free our people from the legal system.

Government funds come with rules and red tape, but community donations come with the promise of self-determination. As an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation and a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, you can trust that we’ll use your donation to the genuine benefit of the community.

→ Give a one-time or ongoing monthly donation to the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT.  

 

 

Thursday 3 June: Consider what comes next

It’s not enough to only support justice for Aboriginal peoples during Reconciliation Week, NAIDOC Week or other days of importance.

How will you keep up your commitment to justice? Will it be through staying informed via Aboriginal news sources like IndigenousX, National Indigenous Times, NITV or Koori Mail? Will you tackle the hard conversations with your friends and family, busting racist stereotypes whenever and wherever you encounter them? Maybe you’ll call on your political representatives to support people, not prisons. You could sign up for a recurring monthly donation to the ALS, helping us fight for our rights over the long term. Or you could speak with your workplace about setting up a corporate donation or regular giving program to benefit the ALS or another Aboriginal community-controlled organisation.

There are many ways to contribute to a fairer future. Take the initiative to become an ongoing ally.


  • Share with your friends!

Get help

Donate to support our work


JOIN US

First name:

Last name:

Email:

Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited
  • Get help
  • Reforming the system
  • News
  • Get involved
  • About
  • Contact
Donate
Icon

Call 1800 765 767
for free legal help

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we live, work and travel. We pay our respects to Elders both past and present and acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices our Elders have made to better our community and future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this site contains names and images of people who have passed away.

Login to Intranet
Website by Principle Co | Built on Nationbuilder | Illustrations by Mumbulla Creative

Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us
© 2025 Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited.

Join us

We'll send you exciting updates on our campaigns and how to join our movement for social justice!


First name:

Last name:

Email:

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, work, and travel, and their Elders past and present.

Warning: This website may contain images and names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have passed away.