Did you know that some ISPs and search engines keep track of the sites you visit and use? Because of that, hackers can find a way to collect your sensitive personal data, thereby exposing you to malware and spyware that will harm your files and computer.
This is how you can stop and/or prevent that:
1. Never put your full name and passwords in search engines.
2. Don’t use a single search engine – Using different engines will make it harder for hackers to profile you.
3. Use different email servers on different search engines for the same reason.
4. Request a new IP address if you detect or experience a malware infection.
5. Use these programs and applications to remedy and/or prevent infections:
has. Trustee Report
b. spam poison
against AVG Link Scanner
d. anonymous.org
me. TorProject.org
Reference: WorldPrivacyForum.org
If you browse with Google Chrome, you can use McAfee SiteAdvisor as a scanner for unsafe views.
Google now has a feature called Web History that automatically saves all your internet searches when you sign in to any of their services: Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Docs, etc. It stays forever unless you turn it off or manually delete the content. And if you want to do that, here’s how:
To do this, simply head over to the Web History option, click “Delete Items” on the left panel, and then click “Clear All Web History” on the right. You can also choose to remove individual items. If you are not signed in to a Google account, your search experience will still be personalized based on previous search information linked to a cookie in your browser. To disable this, you must first search for something, click “Web History” in the top right corner of the results page, and choose to disable customizations. You may also want to clear your browser’s cookies (more on this later). – http://www.techspot.com/guides/281-manage-search-engine-privacy/
If that didn’t work, you may need to clear your browser’s cache and cookies before you can see the changes. But keep in mind that while deleting cookies may solve the problem, it will also delete saved settings from sites you’ve previously visited.
If that still didn’t work (which would be unusual), try this:
1. Clear your history again.
2. Click the Sign out link in the upper right corner of the page.
3. Sign back in at https://www.google.com/accounts/
The Ignored and Dangerous Flash Cookies
Hackers can use flash cookies to track what you do online, access your personal data, and worse, bring malware and wreak havoc on your computers.
Here are some facts about cookies:
1. They never expire
2. Your browsers are not aware of these cookies.
3. Browsers generally cannot remove super cookies or LSOs.
4. There is no easy way to know which flash cookie sites are tracking you.
Controlling your cookies
Here’s how to control cookies manually:
Click the Tools menu and then Options.
Click the Under the Hood tab, and then in the “Privacy” section, click Content Settings.
In the “Cookies” tab, click Show cookies and other site data.
Now you can decide which cookies you should delete. Click Close to the Cookies and other data dialog when you are done. You should also use Clear data or browsing history after using your computer for the day. If you want even more security, here’s a little tool you can use:
FlashCookiesView is a small utility that displays the list of cookie files created by the Flash component (Local Shared Object) in your web browser. For each cookie file, the bottom pane of FlashCookiesView displays the file’s content in human-readable format or as a hex dump. You can also select one or more cookie files and then copy them to the clipboard, save them to a text/html/xml file, or delete them.