Privacy Please? part II

If you want to have your privacy and use the internet…well, you can’t. Somewhere down the line, you are going to have to trust somebody with your info. However, there are steps to take to make sure that your info is not getting stored and to keep your computer safe while browsing. Let’s start with the basics:

Browser History: Delete it all after each session. You don’t need all that junk on your computer!

Companies will put cookies on your computer to track your browsing. One solution to this is to not allow cookies on your browser. This can be accomplished easily on most browsers if you go to tools>options and search around there. You will quickly notice though that most sites will not let you look at them if cookies are disabled. How convenient. My best advice is to just delete all the cookies when you are done browsing. This is also done on most browsers by going to tools>options. Often times you can set settings to delete them automatically.

While you’re at it, delete all that cache too. Cache files are downloaded pictures and such from web pages. This means the next time you go a website, the pictures are already there on your computer making the loading time of the page faster. I for one don’t really care about loading a web page 1 sec faster so I just delete it all. Connections these days are fast enough were caching is not really needed for web pages, IMO.

Use the most current web Browsers: Stay a step ahead of the bad people.

Newer browsers have the most up to date defenses built into them. Defenses against phishing attacks (fake websites that look like trusted ones, like your bank webpage) harder work arounds, and other things. It’s best to stay up to date. Firefox 3 is the newest browser and IMO the best one out right now. I would recommend it to anyone. Check it out here www.firefox.com

Change those passwords:

There are things out there call key loggers that are watching what you type in. If you have the same password for everything that you do, it makes it easy for people to find out what it is. Once they do find it, they’ll have access to your whole life. So, have different passwords for everything and change them often. I’ll talk about a good way to remember them all later.

Be aware: Don’t be stupid, use some of common sense.

You’ve got eyes, use em! Look at the page you are logging on to. Does it seem like a scam? If you’re not sure, do a quick search of the website or organization and see what others are saying. Also, be on the lookout for https:// sites in the browser bar. These are your best friends. https means that the website is encrypting the data so that only your machine and the final receiver know what was sent. This prevents the other computers caught in the middle from being able to read the information. Reading some of the End User Licenses Agreements isn’t a bad idea either.

These are some of the basics. I’ll write a post later about some more basic utilities and some nifty things that you can do to keep an eye on your machine. Thanks for reading and post a comment!