Cleaning up after a Web session

I thought I had been doing a good job cleaning up after Internet browsing sessions to eliminate potential privacy information being available to bad guys by going into Internet Explorer's Internet Options menu and clicking the Delete Cookies, Delete Files and Clear History button (my IE 3-step process).

Many Internet users don't even perform this step to protect their privacy, which is pretty amazing when you consider the amount of files that get stored on a PC during a simple Web browsing session, everything from credit-card data, a list of Web sites visited, passwords, addresses and other sensitive information.

Suspecting there was more being stored on my PC than the 3-step IE process addressed, I downloaded and tested Winferno Software's new PC Confidential application. The $40 software provides a quick and easy way for users to delete sensitive information from their PCs. The company argues that not only can the data be exploited if discovered, but the build-up of these files over time can eventually slow down your system.

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I thought I had been doing a good job cleaning up after Internet browsing sessions to eliminate potential privacy information being available to bad guys by going into Internet Explorer's Internet Options menu and clicking the Delete Cookies, Delete Files and Clear History button (my IE 3-step process).

Many Internet users don't even perform this step to protect their privacy, which is pretty amazing when you consider the amount of files that get stored on a PC during a simple Web browsing session, everything from credit-card data, a list of Web sites visited, passwords, addresses and other sensitive information.

Suspecting there was more being stored on my PC than the 3-step IE process addressed, I downloaded and tested Winferno Software's new PC Confidential application. The $40 software provides a quick and easy way for users to delete sensitive information from their PCs. The company argues that not only can the data be exploited if discovered, but the build-up of these files over time can eventually slow down your system.

The software has an easy-to-understand interface that scans the different areas where Internet browsing data is stored, and then offers the user a chance to delete everything or just specific files. The product provides flexibility in choosing what files to delete, which might be good for "harmless" cookies that are designed to improve browsing experiences.

In my case, the Winferno application found more than 100 files that my "3-step" process hadn't deleted, including some confidential information that I wouldn't want the bad guys to know about.

After the scan, I quickly browsed the Web for some Yahoo and Google News, and collected 14 new files and six new cookies. True, these were probably harmless, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to investigate each and every cookie to see if it was good or not – it was just easier to delete them from the system. The software even has an option that lets you delete everything after you close the browser window – eliminating even that step.

In the end, that's the value of the software – for $40 it eliminates about nine steps (clearing browser cache, browser history, cookies, search history, recent documents list, chat history, Windows temp files, media player history and the recycling bin). Even if I could remember all those steps, the time saved by using the software and clicking one button is worth the price.

The company says its data file shredder technology performs 10 magnetically disruptive scrub passes followed by a final overwrite, ensuring that private or classified records are not compromised for business users who want to give old computers away or to different departments.

The truly paranoid may want to check out the $40 WipeDrive software from White Canyon Software, which completely erases hard drive data (including the operating system if you want). If you want to stick with just one vendor, White Canyon also makes SecureClean ($40), which is similar in features to Winferno's PC Confidential software (but using two vendors is probably more secure since they use different deletion algorithms).