I need advice re: privacy software

[truebrit71]

There are alot of software sites that offer privacy options, internet erasing, spyware etc and I use various anti-bug/spyware applications now. What I am really looking for is something that erases those things that supposedly get buried deep in your 'putey that only the John Q Law types can find. There are alot of options available I am curious as to what things folks have tried and which ones are the best..

TB

[FARAFIELD]

1. SPYBOT IS THE BEST I HAVE SEEN.

Also it is recommended by PC Magazine. AND it is aviliable at thier website for free AND the version you download comes with an Advanced and Easy Version. Once you run the program you will be amazed how much ka-ka you have on your hard drive. Apparently it works like this. People that own the program write in everytime something is attempted to download on their computer. ANd from that database SPYBOT is able to check your computer from a BIG list of known BOTS. Now i have a firewall AND internet security, yet over the 14 months since i got my computer no fewer than 100 Bots were on my computer. One neat function is that it tells you exactly what the BOT does, from HIJACKING your HOMEPAGE to just dropping a cookie. After it checks for BOTS it also allows you to immunize your computer to prevent any of the same programs from being downloaded again. Go to www.pcworld. com and look around for downloads concerning PRIVACY and you will see SPY BOT.

[ReadTomPaine]

2. Try these..

Spybot
Ad Aware
DiskWipe
BlackICE or ZoneAlarm

[greyl]

3. ZoneAlarm, AdAware, and Spybot

All together. In addition to anti-virus of course (I use Norton)

I've found that AdAware and Spybot both catch things the other won't.

[lpbk2713]

4. I use all of the above......

.... plus WebWasher. Cleans out unwanted files and erases any trace of them. Just run Spybot, AdAware, and WebWasher every few days as long as you have up to date firewall and anti-virus files.

[starroute]

5. Look through the list at Son of Spy

http://www.sover.net/~whoi/Security1.html

Two pages worth of all sorts of security applications -- the second page in particular has several programs that clean out various histories and caches.

I haven't used any of them myself, but the person who maintains the site has a passion for both freeware and privacy, and anything you find listed there is likely to be top-notch.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. I'll second Son of Spy.

He's well known on the usenet group alt.comp.freeware, and is one of the good guys.

Speaking of alt.comp.freeware, they annually vote on the best freeware and put the winners on their site. Here's this year's security winners:

http://www.pricelessware.org/2003/PL2003SECURITY.htm

Other relevant usenet groups are: alt.privacy and alt.privacy.spyware

Probably a few others around, too.

fwiw, I use Zone Alarm as a firewall, AVG as my antivirus, and Spybot,AdAware, and WinPatrol for other miscellaneous baddies. I also regularly clear my cache and cookies. I probably should add a few others, since the people who write keyloggers and other spyware are getting better at it. I really don't have the time to set up packet sniffers, though. For the truly paranoid, setting up a network with one machine as a proxy server, and/or using something like Proxomitron sets up another layer of security.

Fundamental to security would be to avoid M$ products, or at least set them up for maximum security. I use Eudora for mail, Agent for usenet, and Opera or Mozilla for browsing. I turn off Active X and other executables unless there's something I know is safe and I need to see. Browser hijackers tend to exploit IE, and often leave the others alone.

One final note-- Windows sets up its own cache and cookie files whether or not you use Internet Explorer. These can't be properly manually cleaned without one of the cache cleaners unless you figure out how to change file properties in DOS and wipe them out without loading Windows.

[Occulus]

6. If you can afford to buy one...

and they're cheap... toss out Zonealarm and get yourself a hardware firewall/router instead. As you can't have both at the same time, get a router- it's more secure.


Or you could just ditch the internet altogether and live your life off the grid :)

[Rocinante]

7. Buy Window Washer

And set it to the maximum times it will rewrite then bleach the internet sites you've visited.

[truebrit71]

10. Thanks for the info you guys..

I downloaded Web Washer but didn't see any sort of application for erasing any tracks that were currently on the hard drive, just washing stuff going forward...It also seriously slowed down my internet speed. I use Comcast cable internet, not a dial-up and was quite surprised at the dramatic slow down. Have any of you found this to be the case? I also downloaded Ad-Aware, I already had spy-bot, and found three programs buried that spybot didn't find.

Has anyone heard about Evidence Eliminator? Is that any good because it is kind of pricey?

Thanks again for the input.

TB

[lpbk2713]

11. My BAD......mea culpa......

..... I said WebWasher above....... Should have said WindowWasher (v 4.5). It works good.

[classics]

8. Window Washer + BestCrypt

Use Window Washer to erase any stored data you might not want to keep.

The use BestCrypt to do a beyond military grade erasure of the unallocated disk space.

BestCrypt will also allow you to create encrypted containers, should you have a need for such a thing.