Instant Messenger History - Clearing It

12/01/2008 

You may have heard time and again about how important it is for you to clear your Internet and computer history as often as possible. However, there are other aspects of your computer usage that may be equally as important security holes to fill, the first of which is your instant messenger history.

The information in your instant messenger history consists of all the saved conversations and data logs of your conversations online. There may be pieces of documents, business information, or contact information stored in that data that you would not want anyone to have access to. Instant messaging is a quick and easy way to stay in contact with nearly anyone and as a result, a lot of very private information may be stored in its history.

What Can Instant Messaging Do?

There are a lot of different aspects to instant messaging. Using protocols that carry real time communications through a service provider, instant messengers allow two individuals to communicate from anywhere in the world via text, video or sound. The platform has made it possible to have instant conferences with multiple individuals from nearly any location.

Additionally, instant messaging can be used with video relays and sound equipment to get a more complete conference setting. In these instances, there are much larger and more important pieces of data being transferred back and forth, including possibly private information.

Cultural Instant Messaging

Business men and women are not the only people using instant messaging. Teenagers are the primary users of the software and with the rise of sites like MySpace, it has become a standard bearer for world wide discussion and friend making. Because teens and other young people have now grown up with instant messaging software at their disposal, they do not necessarily see the security risks that it might represent. Teens thus disclose personal information readily through these software applications – information that is stored on the computer and can be accessed by a third party if so desired.

Instant messaging directly uses the IP address of your computer to connect to the server and transfer information to the parties with whom the conversation is taking place. This IP information can be manipulated and hacked to reach into your computer and take the personal information stored there. Any number of items may be present in your Instant messaging history, separate from your computer history.

The best way to combat the security risks inherent in using an instant messenger is to regularly clear the cache, history, and cookies of any website that directly interacts with instant messengers such as MySpace. Additionally, delete the temporary files stored by your instant messenger. These files can often be found and deleted by a software program with an instant messenger setting, or in some cases within the instant messaging software itself.

By treating Instant messaging the same as any other internet activity and relaying the importance of security to teenagers who may be using the software, the risk of broadcasting private files across the Internet can be further diminished.

Download Privacy Controls now and protect your PC from snoops!