Clearing Computer History
12/01/2008
Computer privacy can be maintained with a variety of actions, some of them preventative and others more proactive. Of all these measures though, the most important and effective is to regularly clear the computer history of files that might contain personal information that anyone could access and misuse.
Clear Files Regularly
Cleaning of the computer's history cannot merely be done every few weeks. It needs to be accomplished on a regular basis to ensure there is no backup of files that could be misused. Along with any other aspects of computer maintenance – including disk defragmentation and cleanups – clearing of the history should be performed as often as possible.
What many people do not realize is that everything they do online is stored on the hard drive – from reading an email to visiting a bank's website. The information from these sites is stored on the user's hard drive where it can be accessed later by that website. It may make the process of surfing the Internet faster and more efficient, but it also makes it much more possible for someone to reach and misuse personal computer files.
Internet History
One of the simplest ways for a scam artist to steal personal information from someone's computer is to simply look at their recent history of websites visited and then look up the cached files related to those websites. Often, login information or personal data will be stored in these files. This is why it is a good idea to clear out the Internet History whenever you use a computer, shortly before logging out, especially when using a public computer, such as one at work or in a library or school.
Deleting Your Temporary Internet Files
- Visit the tools menu in Internet Explorer
- Visit Internet Options. Go to the General Tab and look for the buttons marked "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files".
- Delete Cookies will remove all stored information that websites download to your computer. Click this button.
- Delete Files will clear out all of the files stored from websites, such as banner ads and pictures. Click this button.
- The Clear History button will remove the entire list of websites visited within the past 20 days. Click this button.
- Click OK and Save all changes.
Software Solutions
Deleting these files directly through the browser used is a good way to start protecting your privacy. However, to be as thorough as possible, a good idea is to download and install an Internet deletion program that will remove all of these files from your computer history as well, where they are doubly stored and hidden away from you.
Beyond just cleaning out your Internet and Computer History, you must be able to recognize what information on your computer will be at risk if you do not take the opportunity to remove it. An enterprising hacker or scam artist can easily access and use the information stored in these files at any time – all the better reason to remove it as often as possible.
Download Privacy Controls now and protect your PC from snoops!