You might think that the biggest online privacy
risks are sitting out “there” in cyberspace, but that’s not true. Your
biggest risk is actually sitting right under your nose, so to speak:
It’s Internet Explorer. That’s because Internet Explorer (just like
Firefox, Safari, and any other web browser) saves tons of information
related to your online activities. So the first step in covering your
online tracks is to manage the information that Internet Explorer
stores. The next few sections offer some suggestions.
Deleting Your Browsing History
As you surf the Web, Internet Explorer maintains what it calls your browsing history, which consists of the following six data types:
Temporary Internet files—
This is Internet Explorer’s cache, and it consists of copies of text,
images, media, and other content from the pages you’ve visited
recently. Internet Explorer stores all this data so that the next time
you view one of those pages, it can retrieve data from the cache and
display the site much more quickly. This is clearly a big-time privacy
problem because it means that anyone can examine the cache to learn
where you’ve been surfing. Cookies— This
is Internet Explorer’s collection of cookie files, which are small text
files that sites store on your computer. I discuss cookies in more
detail later in this chapter, but for now it’s enough to know that
although most cookies are benign, they can be used to track your
activities online. History—
This is a list of addresses of the sites you’ve visited, as well as
each of the pages you visited within those sites. By default, Internet
Explorer stores 20 days’ worth of history. Again, this is a major
privacy accident just waiting to happen, because anyone sitting at your
computer can see exactly where you’ve been online over the page 20 days. Form data—
This refers to the AutoComplete feature, which stores the data you type
in forms and then uses that saved data to suggest possible matches when
you use a similar form in the future. For example, if you use a site’s
Search box frequently, Internet Explorer remembers your search strings
and displays strings that match what you’ve typed, as shown in Figure 1.
(Press the down-arrow key to select the one you want, and then press
Enter.) This is definitely handy, but it also means that anyone else
who uses your computer can see your previously entered form text.
Passwords—
This is another aspect of AutoComplete, and Internet Explorer uses it
to save form passwords. For example, if you enter a username and a
password on a form, Internet Explorer asks if you want to save the
password. If you click Yes, Internet Explorer stores the password and
enters it automatically the next time you fill in the form (provided
you enter the same username). Again, this is nice and convenient, but
it’s really just asking for trouble because it means that someone
sitting down at your computer can log on to a site, a job made all the
easier if you activated the site option to save your username! Note
If
you don’t want Internet Explorer to save your form data, passwords, or
neither, select Tools, Internet Options, select the Content tab, and
then click Settings in the AutoComplete group. In the AutoComplete
Settings dialog box, deactivate the Forms check box to stop saving form
data. If you no longer want to save form passwords, deactivate the User
Name and Passwords on Forms check box. Click OK in all open dialog
boxes.
Tip
You
can configure Internet Explorer to remove all files from the Temporary
Internet Files folder each time you exit the program. Select Tools,
Options to open the Internet Options dialog box, display the Advanced
tab, and then activate the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When
Browser Is Closed check box.
InPrivate Filtering Data—
This is information that Internet Explorer 8 gathers to detect when
third-party providers are supplying data to the sites you visit. For
more information, see “Total Privacy: InPrivate Browsing and Filtering,” later in this chapter.
Fortunately, you can plug any and all of these privacy holes by deleting the data. Here’s how it’s done in Internet Explorer 8:
1. | Select Safety, Delete Browsing History (or press Ctrl+Shift+Delete) to display the Delete Browsing History dialog box shown in Figure 2.
| 2. | If
you don’t want to save the cache and cookie files associated with sites
on your Favorites list, deactivate the Preserve Favorites Website Data
check box.
| 3. | Leave
the Temporary Internet Files check box activated to remove all files
from the Internet Explorer cache, located in the following folder:
%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
| 4. | Leave the Cookies check box activated to remove all the cookies from the following folder:
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
Tip
If
you just want to delete certain cookies—for example, those from
advertisers—open the Cookies folder and delete the files individually.
| 5. | Leave
the History check box activated to remove the list of websites you’ve
visited, which resides as files in the following folder:
%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
Tip
If
you want to delete history from a certain site, day, or week, click
Favorites Center (or press Alt+C), and click History to display the
History list. If you want to delete just a few sites, open the
appropriate History branch, and then, for each site, right-click the
site and then click Delete. If you want to delete a number of sites,
right-click the appropriate day or week and then click Delete. Click
Yes when Internet Explorer asks you to confirm.
| 6. | Activate the Form data check box to remove your saved form data.
| 7. | Activate the Passwords check box to remove your saved passwords.
| 8. | Activate the InPrivate Filtering Data check box to remove your saved InPrivate Filtering information.
| 9. | Click Delete. Internet Explorer removes the selected data.
|
|
When
you use Windows Media Player to play content from an Internet site, the
program communicates certain information to the site, including the
unique ID number of your copy of Windows Media Player. This allows
content providers to track the media you play, and they might share
this data with other sites. So, although the player ID does not
identify you personally, it might result in sites sending you targeted
ads based on your media choices. If you do not want such an invasion of
privacy, you can instruct Windows Media Player not to send the Player
ID. Press Alt+F and then select Tools, Options. In the Options dialog
box, display the Privacy tab and make sure that the Send Unique Player
ID to Content Providers check box is deactivated. (However, remember
that some content sites require
the player ID before you can play any media. For example, a site might
request the ID for billing purposes. In that case, you should read the
site’s privacy statement to see what uses it makes of the ID.) Also
deactivate the I Want to Help Make Microsoft Software and Services Even
Better check box to avoid sending your Windows Media Player usage data
to Microsoft. You should also deactivate the check boxes in the History
group if you don’t want other people who use your computer to see the
media files and sites that you play and visit.
|
|
