Yes, it’s true.  With a few relatively simple programming tricks, a web site can effectively discern your browsing history.  Any web site, if they so desire, can figure out quite a lot of information about where you have been on the Internet as well as what you have searched for on well known search engines.

How:  Most people who surf the net have their browsers set to remember several weeks of browsing history, and they could visit a lot of web sites over that period of time. 

Well, unbeknownst to you, you may be letting on a lot more than you realize.

Cookies can also be used to spy on your browsing habits, but this techmique has nothing to do with cookies.  Therefore even if you diligently delete cookies, you may falsely believe your browsing habits will not be passed on to some other site you visit. 

How is this done?  All it takes is a simple bit of CSS and/or JavaScript code, and a database of links to test.  They can test up to a million links per minute.  That is right, I said a million links per minute.  And you won’t have a clue it is going on.

Now, what do you suppose a web site would want to test for?   Huh?  Just use a little imagination and you will answer that question for yourself.

The results can be added to another database that includes your I.P. address and whatever other identifying info can be gleaned from cookies and standard data that all browsers give out.  This standard data includes the brand of browser you are using, screen resolution and enough other information to uniquely identify your computer with a high degree of accuracy.  And that is not all.  Other techniques can test for content in your browsers cache.

 How to combat this?  Some suggestions:

• The most reliable way is to set your browser to not keep a browsing history (or to keep a very minimal history, say a day or two), and delete the history you already have.  
• Set your browser so that new and visited links have the exact same color.
• Keep your cache relatively small and delete it regularly, if not for every session. 
• Surf with a variety of browsers.

For more info, and to test your browser, you may visit the following links:

 http://www.whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com

 http://startpanic.com/

Remember: Practice Safe Computing!

Our favorite search engine, Ixquick, is now also known as Startpage.   Actually, Startpage and Ixquick are really one and the same.  Startpage is simply an easier name to remember.  Why is it our favorite search engine?  Privacy, Accuracy, Speed.  This is the only search engine awarded the European Privacy Seal.  It does not record your searches, and it does not even record your IP address. Give it a try.

http:startpage.com

or

http://ixquick.com

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Use this handy search box to

search “Google” securely via “Scroogle”

***

Firefox 3.5 has a new “feature” that may allow web sites to more accurately pinpoint your location on the planet.  This feature is enabled by default.

When you visit a location-aware website, Firefox will ask you if you want to share your location.  You will have the opportunity to accept of decline this option.

But if you want to permanently disable this feature, do the following:

Open Firefox:

• In the URL bar, type about:config
• Type geo.enabled in the "Filter" box
• Double click on the geo.enabled preference so that it is set to “false”
• Location-Aware Browsing is now disabled

Source: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/geolocation/

Key loggers can be some of the most dangerous spyware one can have have on a computer.  They can capture every stroke you type, and that includes passwords and user names, account numbers and  credit card numbers.  Many of the creators of this nasty spyware claim that there software is undetectable.  Well, we don’t know if that is true, but true or not, there is a solution that may well save you from ID theft, bank account theft and many other potentially very serious problems caused by key loggers.

Give yourself some piece of mind and install KeyScrambler from http://www.qfxsoftware.com/.   The free version protects Internet Explorer and Firefox.  Paid versions are available that protect much more software, including Microsoft Office and numerous other programs.  We have been testing it for a couple of weeks and have found no problems.  We have not tested its ability to foil key loggers, but it comes with some good recommendations.   And we are going to give it ours also.  Check it out.

A visit to the following web site would be advisable to anyone interested in computer security and Internet security:  http://www.stophcommerce.com

And send a link to anyone you know who may be vulnerable to being scammed or hacked.

The site is sponsored by McAfee, and will be posting a series of short videos about Internet security.

This video may give you a good idea as to why updating is important.

It is incredibly important to keep *all* the software on your computer updated on a very regular basis.  Do not leave this to chance.  Do not rely on programs to update themselves. 

Do use tools like Secunia PSI.  Secunia PSI can help you keep a lot of these programs up to date.  We highly recommend this tool, found at: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

 Do insure that you have the latest anti-virus software and  keep it updated with current definitions.

There is a list of software that *must* be updated on a regular basis (if installed):

• Sun Java Runtime
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Your computers operating system, be it XP, Vista, MAC OS, Linux or whatever.
• Your browser, be it IE, Firefox, Opera or whatever
• QuickTime
• Spybot Search and Destroy Immunization definitions
• Spyware Blaster
• Your antivirus software
• Your firewall softwares
• Your Security suite, it that is what you use
• CCleaner or whatever temp file and registry cleaner you may use
• Any other anti-spyware software you may use
• WordPress, or any server based blogging  or similar tools you may use

Scroogle is a front end to google that encrypts the connection to google and prevents google from recording personally identifiable information.

Check it out:  https://ssl.scroogle.org/

Go to https://privnote.com/

1. Write a private note (add a return receipt if desired).
2. Past the link to the note in an email and send.
3. It can only be read once and will self-destruct.

Maxwell Smart couldn’t do any better.