The Embarrassing Shortcuts
When you open a new tab in Google Chrome, the New Tab Page displays a row of shortcut tiles showing the websites you visit most frequently. Chrome automatically generates and updates these tiles based on your browsing history, replacing less-visited sites with more recent frequent visits. This creates a privacy problem on shared computers or during screen-sharing sessions: your most-visited sites are plainly visible to anyone who glances at your screen the moment you open a new tab. Whether it is a job search website visible to your current employer, a medical information site, or simply a guilty-pleasure entertainment platform, these auto-generated shortcuts can reveal personal browsing habits you would rather keep private.
Removing Most Visited Shortcuts
To stop Google Chrome from automatically displaying your most visited websites on the New Tab Page, you must customise the page to either show only manually pinned shortcuts or hide shortcuts entirely.
Open a New Tab (Ctrl + T). In the bottom-right corner of the New Tab Page, click the Customise Chrome button (pencil icon). In the customisation panel that opens, look for the Shortcuts section. You will see options such as “Most visited sites” and “My shortcuts.” Select My shortcuts to switch from automatically generated tiles to a manually curated set. Remove any existing auto-generated shortcuts by hovering over each tile, clicking the three-dot menu, and selecting Remove. You can then manually add only the specific shortcuts you are comfortable displaying. Alternatively, if you want a completely clean New Tab Page with no shortcuts at all, toggle the Show shortcuts switch to Off. Click Done to save. Chrome will no longer surface your browsing habits on the New Tab Page, giving you full control over what is visible to anyone who sees your screen.