Hands Off! Personal Computer Privacy

Recent Documents and Trash

The "Recent Documents" file should also be cleaned to defeat casual snooping. You can do this item-by-item using your right click mouse button from the folder, or delete those records all at once from your Start>Settings>Taskbar function.

The same tools that let you recover from an accidental delete -- like Norton's Protected Recycle Bin -- also mean a snoop can recover deleted files when you're not there. Be sure to empty your trash and the Protected File folder that comes with most undelete software.

Tools

Many security and PC performance tools, like Norton's System Works ($US70), also include software to automate these tasks -- where suites are concerned, the relationship between price and performance is often dramatically clear.

There are hundreds of software packages designed expressly for the purpose of sweeping away your tracks, however, and many are cheap -- or even free.

Webroot, for example, offers an award-winning $US30 tool called "Window Washer" that removes cookies, history files, caches, and other "footprint" related Internet activity -- a cosmetic once-over scrub that should defeat a casual snoop. Window Washer also allows you to "bleach" deleted files with several overwrites -- not deep protection, but enough to defeat most undelete software. Another tool, less well established, is Anti Spy, which does even more than Window Washer, for $US17.

Finally, secure your email. PGPFreeware lets you exchange strongly encrypted e-mail and even encrypt files -- and it's free. This program is so powerful, the US Government fought to keep it out of non-US hands for years. Now (think big conspiracy here) the US versions are widely rumoured to be compromised. Download from the international site, which is still open source.