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Many of us are under the assumption that most of our internet
activity is anonymous. This could not be further from the truth. The
truth is, an increasing amount of our private information can now be
accessed by third parties and this includes our browsing habits, our
private messages as well as our personal contact details.
The
internet service provider account is a unique account that corresponds
to our computer and has the ability to monitor and track the emails we
send, the websites we access, and even what terms we type into our
search engine. Although to a lesser degree, the websites that a user
visits also have access to a large amount of information about a user's
browsing habits!
There are several tools and concepts that pose a
risk to internet privacy. Cookies are used for tracking users. Cookies
are originally written for legitimate purposes but can be easily abused
to gather personal data and identify patterns in the user's online
activity.
Malware and spyware are increased concerns as personal
data becomes more and more valuable for advertisers. Spyware not only
monitors the user's online behaviour without their consent, but also
collects information on the user's online surfing habits, and alters
internet settings.
As the internet becomes more and more
prolific, it becomes an intrinsic part of life, used for everything
from shopping and banking to personal correspondence. How then, can one
protect themselves from privacy invasive practises and software to keep
their information as safe as possible?
Internet privacy software
Privacy
software has been developed to protect user's online privacy. The
software works to restrict the amount of browsing information made
accessible to third parties. Much internet privacy software masks the
users' internet protocol (IP) address from the World Wide Web and
protects the user from identity theft. Internet privacy software
cleans the computer making it less prone to cyber threats. It works by
clearing all the cookies and private data stored on your computer. This
not only protects the user from malware and cyber crime but also clears
hard disk space!
These programmes scour internet browsers,
auto-completed forms with saved personal data, cookies, cache and temp
files, URL error logs, and visited URL records. These programmes also
allow you to shred files. Files deleted can simply be recovered from
the recycle bin. Even after the recycle bin has been emptied, it is
still quite easily possible to recover deleted files. Privacy software
usually allows the user to delete files to Department of Defence
standard and make them potentially unrecoverable.
Most internet
privacy software needs a quick small download, and is easy to use. It
is foolish to underestimate the power of new technologies capable of
compromising our privacy. It is important to do all we can to remain
safe from malware, identity theft and to uphold our right to privacy.
What is the best internet privacy software you can get and what should you look out for? Get answers to questions like this on the next page by Clicking Here! |
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