Computer Clean Up
With all of the recent news stories about identity theft, it got me thinking about my PC. What kinds of information did I have stored on it? And is it really something that a hacker might want?
After a little digging around (and several Internet tutorials later!) I was astounded at the amount of personal information I found. All the websites I had visited, months of stored cookies and more were all stored in several different locations throughout my PC. Anybody looking at my PC could see that I liked to shop at Amazon.com, what news stories I had read and that my wife was pregnant.
Knowing I was in need of a computer clean up, here’s what I found:
- Internet History This is a record of all the websites I’d visited. Because my history is used in a few different ways, it’s stored in several places on my PC. For example, you know how when you start to type in a website address (URL) and your computer finishes it for you? That’s because of your Internet History list!
- Cache (also known as Temporary Internet Files) Cache is a file that stores information from web pages that I often visit. This means every image, animation, link and sound from all the websites I’ve visited is stored on your PC. Essentially anyone looking at my cache would be able to see everything that I saw the last time I was on the Internet.
- Cookies Have you ever bought something from a website that required a login, like Amazon.com? I have and when I go back days later, I’m greeted with “Welcome back Jeffrey!” at the top of the page. I used to wonder — how did the website magically remember my name?
Simple – the website used a file called a Cookie. Cookies are little files that websites write and store on your computer. Every time I visit a certain website, it will look for its cookie on my hard drive. It uses the information stored within the cookie to know my name, my shopping preferences and lots of other information about me.
- Recent Documents List Did you know that Microsoft Windows keeps a record of every document that you open on your computer? This record can be easily accessed from the Start menu and anyone who looks at my computer can see what I was last working on.
- Index.dat file This is the trickiest kind of file. Index.dat houses a record of my cookies, my history, my temporary files and my cache. I could separately delete my cookies, my history and my cache, but a record of them would still exist in my index.dat file. But the worst part is, because of the way Windows is designed; this file cannot be manually deleted.
After discovering all of these web tracks, I decided a computer clean up was in order. Being somewhat computer savvy, I knew that I could manually delete some of these files and perform a computer clean up myself.
But keeping my computer clean was another matter. I knew that a computer clean up shouldn’t be a spring-cleaning activity. I wanted my computer to be clean everyday and I knew I didn’t have the time to manually delete files every single time I left the Internet.
My Computer Clean Up Solution
PC Confidential is a program that was designed for the purpose of cleaning all the files on your computer that a hacker could potentially use to build a profile for you and steal your identity. Did you know that…
Every website you visit, picture you view, video you watch, online chat you have, and more is all being recorded in hidden files. With just a little effort, this information could be available to your spouse, your boss, your kids, or even a hacker trying to steal your identity!
Why jeopardize your family, reputation, job, or identity any longer? With PC Confidential, you won’t be putting your privacy at risk anymore. PC Confidential was specifically designed to protect your sensitive information and ensure that no one will be able to access what you do on your PC.
You don’t have to guess what private information is sitting on your computer anymore. You can download our Free Personal Privacy Scan and within seconds know how much of your personal information is at risk and permanently delete this data so that it can NEVER be recovered.
With PC Confidential, your privacy is secure!
Learn more about PC Confidential.
Incoming search terms for the article:
Similar articles
- Disk Cleanup Software – Free Download
Complete Cleanup – Internet Privacy and Disk Cleaner Software (Free software trial below) “Complete Cleanup” Software Description: Internet software cookies are bits of information stored on your computer whenever you visit webpages while browsing. This can cause some some privacy issues as this can allow websites to track and log your
... - Why is My Internet Explorer So Slow? Learn How to Fix it Today!
Are you tired of asking the question, why is my Internet Explorer so slow? You are asking this question because you know that you have a high-speed internet connection and there was no power interruption, yet a single web page takes minutes to load. Believe me, this is a very typical concern of every Internet
... - How To Make Your Computer Run Faster in 3 Simple Steps
Have you noticed any changes lately? Is your computer running too slow, taking too much time to boot, accessing files and programs is a lot harder than before? Everyone can go over this and I am one of the them. No matter you use your computer on daily basis or just two times a week
... - Speed up Safari
From Mac Guides This guide explains several methods to speed up web browsing on Apple’s own web browser, Safari. None of these tips will help if you are experiencing problems with your hardware/system software or if your ISP is having technical problems of its own. It is worth remembering that due to the structure of
... - How can i Speed up my Browser ?
some tips might only increase performance for broadband users. * Disable Name Completion and local network lookup Whenever you enter a single word into the address field Opera will look in your bookmarks for that name and try to find a local network with the name as well. Server Name Completion
...