Modern technology has changed the way how people live their lives. With just a few keystrokes, people can gain access to any information that they want. The same can also be said for criminals and thieves out there. Every time you use your computer, you are leaving traces of files and information that can be stolen by any adept hacker. To protect yourself from identity theft, you need to make sure that your computer has utmost privacy and security.
Why Erase Tracks of your Computer Activity
With just a few clicks of a button and keystrokes, people can easily access any information, communicate with anyone or make instant purchases regardless of their geographical location as long as they have a computer and internet. Information is right at people’s fingertips. However, these modern-day conveniences come with some risks. Today, most private information is stored in the computer, from medical information to credit card information.
Large companies are fully aware of the security risks. Since these large companies rely on computers to keep their business going, they are constantly working to further improve their security measures. These companies employ teams of dedicated IT staff to keep their private information secure and to keep their business going. These companies invest a huge portion of their budget on security equipment. Still, there are instances wherein their security measures are not enough to hold off hackers.
On the other hand, home users usually don’t give much thought on their security since they believe that they nothing important that on their computers those hackers would want to get hold of. However, that is not true at all. The reality is that home users are more vulnerable that large companies since they do not give much thought on their computer’s security.
Hide Your Internet Activity
You can conceal your tracks on the internet by making use of the browser’s private browsing feature. It helps prevent the browser from storing the history of the web pages you have viewed. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox have this feature. For Google Chrome, it is called Incognito mode. For Internet Explorer, it is InPrivate Browsing. Mozilla Firefox simply refers to this feature as Private Window.
However, it is important to note that private browsing still won’t be able to remove all traces of your internet activities as files saved remain. The feature also doesn’t do anything to help obscure your web traffic from the server’s side. Your IP address is still visible to the websites you visit. Also, an unencrypted data you send is vulnerable to interception as it would normally happen to a regular browser session.
Lastly, you can also make use of Tor. It is a network that enables internet users to access the internet anonymously. When using the Tor network, any incoming or outgoing traffic is bounced to numerous computers that people have set up. These computers act as nodes in the network. Therefore, any sites you visit won’t be able to determine your IP address, and anyone checking your outgoing traffic won’t be able to determine what sites you are visiting.
Always Protect your PC
You also need to follow several precautionary measures to protect your computer. One of the things that you need to do is to create different user accounts for each person who uses the computer and have each account set up with a unique password. You need to bear in mind that Windows guest accounts have lesser privileges compared to admin account. The files and documents stored on a user account can only be accessed by that user. Although this feature is not airtight, it can help reduce any unauthorized access to the computer.
You can also make use of security software to help maintain the security of your computer. One good example would be the Privacy Controls software from Protect Any PC. This program helps in removing any unwanted files and confidential information from your computer including but not limited to passwords, banking details, tracking cookies, and credit card information.
It also effectively removes your search history from any browser and any unwanted history items from third-party programs. The program is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 operating systems. It also very lightweight as it only consumes 10mb of hard drive space. Visit Protect Any PC’s official website to download the software.
