Online Privacy Frequent Questions

Online privacy is something often overlooked by computer users but it's becoming more and more critical to protect yourself. Did you know that anyone who accesses or monitors your computer can see what web sites you've visited? Every file, command, deletion, picture, and more, from every site you've ever visited is in someway copied to your hard drive.

What can people see if I don't clear my PC or internet history?

Unless deleted properly and permanently, anyone who uses or accesses your computer can see which web sites you've visited in the past. Every picture you've seen, movie you've watched, cookies you've picked up, even the commands that you've done, could be copied to your hard drive for anyone to see. They can see your Windows Run history, recently created documents, temporary files, and more. Even regular applications like MS Office, Realplayer, Media Player, and WinZip track your paths. After all, this information has to go somewhere!

Why can't I fully delete my Internet history on my own?

Whether you realize it or not, all of your browsing history is stored in randomly placed hidden files on your hard drive. Even if you are aware of this, Internet Explorer keeps these records intact and does not delete them even when you empty your browser cache! They are so well hidden by Windows that you are highly unlikely to find them. If you were able to find these files, you'd probably see URLs you don't remember visiting, files that were viewed or deleted months ago, and hundreds of useless cookies...even if you did a full delete and cache clear! This is why it's crucial to use a program like Privacy Guardian to eliminate these kinds of privacy issues and collected cyber garbage.

Why is this information stored even if I asked to delete it?

There are so-called Internet Explorer databases where your Internet browsing activity is stored for an extended period of time. It keeps this database so that it can easy retrieve information rather than scanning the temporary directories each and every time it has to locate cache files. There are three kinds of index.dat files and while they each share the same structure, they store different bits of data.

You have one for temporary Internet files where almost every image and file you've ever viewed are stored. Cleaning the temporary Internet files won't help, it will only remove the files, but it will keep the records in this file.

There is also a cookies index file where the cookies placed on your computer are stored. While clearing out the cookies that sites place usually removes most of the records from this file, there are almost always leftover cookies that are not deleted.

Finally, there are history index files that hold each of the URLs you have ever opened on your machine. There can be more than one file; usually it creates one of every week.

Not deleting these files can prove to be dangerous because they may store sensitive information about your activities, your passwords, and even you credit card numbers.

Does Privacy Guardian just delete cookies and delete old files?

Actually, it does this and so much more! Privacy Guardian also restores valuable hard drive space and speeds up system performance by cleaning out old and unused temporary records. It allows you to quickly and securely erase sensitive files from Windows, Microsoft Office, Netscape, Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer.

PC Tools Links

• Privacy Guardian

  Powerful privacy software to erase online Internet tracks and program activity.

  Privacy Guardian is a safe and easy-to-use privacy protection tool that securely deletes online Internet tracks and program activity records that are stored in your browser and other hidden files on your computer.

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