Privacy Paranoia

OK campers, have a go at this one.

Most of us are concerned about privacy on the Internet and wiping surplus confidential or browsing data etc. from our computers. May I ask some of our more cyberfanatic enthusiasts what is the safest and most "practical" way of doing this without making it a veritable pain in the butt ?

I use Firefox 3.6, Windows 2002 XP Home with SP3. I can clear my browsing and private data etc. by using the very efficient and user-friendly Options/Private/Security. I also use ATP as shown in this link as a manual killer - you can see the items I usually check :-

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/ATP3.jpg

Is this enough ? Do all these delete facilities simply cut the visual link between the hard disc and the screen leaving the data still on the hard disc or is the hard disc completely erased of this data ?

I have heard stories of the "Men in Black" tampering with the hard discs of suspects and recovering deleted information and if they can do it, why not the crooks and hackers ?. But then we do live in a wonderful world of love and trust.

John Bull

 

Who you calling camp

You might like to check out this http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r23917252-Usage-history-keeps-staying-in-Windows-XP-registry

What's ATP ?

 

Might as well just run your browser with Sandboxie. Don't enable any of the browser write options. And download and use sdelete with it. Then nothing from a browser session will remain on the disk.

 

Ya right on the ball CR - I made a mistake - it should be ATF Cleaner by Atribune. Sorry to confuse.

John Bull

 

@John Bull

No charge

Are you on Vista ?

http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25

As i noticed from your screenie that not all options are ticked ?

 

To :- CloneRanger

My gear was stated in the opening post.
I am no expert in these things, just a keen amateur player with several years experience and an engineering pedigree. My PC has no personal data on it except my name and address. Not a scrap of financial data is entered.

The primary concern is to keep my PC clean of flotsam and residue left over from browsing sessions. If I start with an empty box, I want to finish with an empty box, not have a pile of unsolicited clutter left in it by websites I have visited. Plus of course ensuring that incoming fire is absorbed by my flack shield. Empty box = Empty hard disc ? HUM - not sure this happens.

That is why I only check the boxes on ATF and Firefox/Privacy that cover residual flotsam.
Not sure about Prefetch and Windows Temp - is it OK to clear those ?
Windows Temp sounds more than just web residue.

The suggestion of Sandboxie and Sdelete sounds really good. Looking at the "Get Started" for Sandboxie though makes me feel that learning to fly a B-2 would be much easier.

Thank you
John Bull

 

Don't be intimidated. I loaded it up to play on a whim a couple of weeks back and it was really easy to get it up and running.

You can also make it stronger by doing things like restrictions on Internet access and starting programs, but that takes a bit of time and you really don't have to.

Adding sdelete is really easy, just download it and put it somewhere and there's a part in the Sanboxie config where you point it at sdelete.

But really, doing nothing and just installing it and using the automatically created link to launch your default browser sandboxed and you won't save anything to your drive you don't want to.

or you could just boot off of a live CD.

 

ATP 
Biochemistry. adenosine triphosphate: an ester of adenosine and triphosphoric acid, C10H12N5O4H4P3O9, formed esp. aerobically by the reaction of ADP and an orthophosphate during oxidation, or by the interaction of ADP and phosphocreatine or certain other substrates, and serving as a source of energy for physiological reactions, esp. muscle contraction.
Oh you must mean the other ATP

 

I have been using East-Tec Eraser for several years. It is really thorough and does a great job. It is also quite customizable.

 

I was going to update my East-Tec Eraser 2006 and get the get East-Tec Eraser 2010. Some Software download places discount East-Tec Eraser 2010 at about $20. I started looking at R-wipe and clean http://www.r-wipe.com/, how come East-tec doesn't have a forum? . R-wipe and Clean has a forum, I just trialed R-wipe and Clean (15 day) and just yesterday bought R wipe and Clean.
EAST-tec Eraser 2010 costs 49.95 on website and is discounted http://www.softpicks.net/software/Utilities/Security-Encryption/East-Tec-Eraser-49187.htm, R-wipe and Clean costs 28.99 USD on website and is not discounted anywhere.

 

I don't know why East-tec doesn't have a forum. I chose East-tec Eraser because the reviews I read were better for it than r-wipe and I continued to use it because I never had any problems with it. If you know of an accurate software review of r-wipe, it would be great if you could post it.

 

This is a review of version 7.6 http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/R-Wipe-Clean-Review-66779.shtml , the current version is 8.9.
[edit] I found a review for 8.5 http://www.softpicks.net/software/Utilities/Disk-Utilities/R-Wipe-amp-Clean-5505.htm

 

Someone mentioned Sandboxie. If you configure it with eraser, it will wipe the dat file when you delete the Sandbox. But if you have never tried Returnil, you must! It is absolutely amazing and it is so simple to use that any 12 year old could set it up with no problem. It creates a virtual copy of your OS. When you restart your computer everything that you have done is gone in a puff of smoke. It never happened. Two things: in the control panel, choose "Enable when you restart windows" You will only need to disable when you want to install a program or do updates. And under preferences, check "wipe disk changes on restart". It will be as if nothing had ever happened upon restart. Plus, any malware that you may happen to run across will disappear after restart.

There is a free and paid version. http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/

 

@John Bull

Ya right on the ball JB - I made a mistake too

Why just browsing sessions ? Windows makes and stores ALL sorts of data about your daily activities, including TEMP/TMP files etc, so why not get rid of that F and R as well ?

Sandboxie is a very well thought of solution, as is Returnil, already advocated by members above.

Having tried both, i'd say that Returnil is a lot easier/quicker to configure. Make sure you check out the Sticky threads about it first though, as some people have had issues.

@Carver

Sounds good, where can i get some

 

I am absolutely satisfied with all the comments made, putting a question on Wilders brings forth a wealth of information that I never would have had.

I like the idea of Sandboxie, but the 6 page "Getting Started" is a real put-off.

See this comment and please let me have your views, since I do not want any trouble from using a facility that is supposed to give me nothing but benefits :-
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/Sandboxie.jpg

My criteria -
* Any disruption of my system files sequence is not acceptable.
* Any deletion of my program files is not acceptable.
* After using Sandboxie, I want to resume normal operation without problems.
* I use several active programs when browsing, how will all these be included in the so-called sandbox ?
* If Sandboxie poses any problem at all, then I do not want it.
* On uninstalling Sandboxie, I want no left-over legacy - once it is gone - it is gone and my system is left as if it never happened.

Same with the other facilities suggested. These programs come in by invitation and go out by decision. I want no residual rubbish or problems left on my system by trying them out.

John Bull

 

I'm not sure why that person in your attachment had that issue. Possibly he was confusing Sandboxie checking for updates as malicious? In any case, outside of the sandbox that Sandboxie runs programs in, your files ARE left alone. That's the purpose of it, to keep whatever you run in it away from the real system (there are ways around that, but that's a much different topic).

If you are running anything like, oh say, Adblock Plus or Noscript, or any other type of program that updates itself through the browser, then any update that is made while inside Sandboxie is gone when the sandbox is emptied. That is both a blessing and a curse for obvious reasons. However, it is easily remedied by running said updates outside of Sandboxie.

I'm going to give it to you straight, Sandboxie's security is at its best when it is configured more than just using the default settings. Configuring it to its tightest is both a pain (for me) and can lead to issues. Most only use Sandboxie to cover their browsing sessions, it's really what the program is meant for. If you only use it for that, or maybe running your media player in it when dealing with new movies/music files you don't trust yet, you should be just fine. Be aware that Sandboxie does often leave behind an empty folder or so. I've never run across a program that has truly uninstalled without a trace.

 

Marvelous reply.

Being only a squaddie in this game, I would use Sandboxie just for browsing sessions. If I spotted any tricks, I would explore them.
I do have Adblock Plus, NoScript and other goodies in my toy-box.

I use Comodo IS-V4 which has a sandbox of a kind. I could disable this, but the egg-heads at Comodo say I coud have problems of compatibity. They say to uninstall my Comodo, install Sandboxie and wait for the BANG ! No way. I don`t want to see my perfect system currently purring like a cat lapping the cream, explode into a mammoth jig-saw puzzle.

I still like the concept of Sandboxie and the tributes posters have given it.
Any comments ?
John Bull

 

Either I haven't looked very well or I've not seen an issue between Sandboxie and CIS mentioned here at Wilders. It would be my advice to keep Comodo installed THEN install Sandboxie. The reason I say that is that Comodo WILL complain and throw up alarms when Sandboxie tries to install its driver. When it does, you can allow it, have Comodo remember your answer, and be done with it.