How Safe is Your Confidential Information and Privacy?

July 2008
by Ryan Hagen

Remember that questionable photo your buddy sent you that you instantly deleted and made disappear for good? You didn’t. Or what about all those credit card transactions that reveal your sensitive financial information, nobody can have access to that right? They can.

Unfortunately your PC is an open book. Anyone that has access to it has the power to exploit your sensitive information, which can lead to personal and financial disaster.

It’s a good thing there are programs out there that will make the paper trail disappear.

Privacy controls¹ programs can allow you to decide which files you want to destroy for good, and make sure that it is done in a discreet manner. Some of these powerful programs allow you to permanently wipe out any data related to your Internet activity such as website history, cookies and confidential information like passwords, IDs and banking and credit card information.

If you get your hands on the right application, you will have the capacity to purge a wide range of files and caches created by P2P applications, such as Bit Torrent, LimeWire, Azureus, Kazaa, uTorrent and Morpheus. As well as Instant Messaging and Voice Over Internet Protocol such as: AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Instant Messenger, Trillian, Google Talk, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and GAIM.

Living in a time where personal security is of the utmost importance in both our personal and business lives, it’s good to know that there are ways to make sure that your sensitive information doesn’t find its way into the hands of an unwanted third party.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that there will be about 9 million identities stolen in the U.S. this year. With the total cost estimated at around $52 billion, over $5,000 for the average victim.

Even when selling your computer or having it repaired by a technician, your confidential information is vulnerable long after you have deleted it. It is important to have it shredded for good through the permanent removal of files.

¹ ParetoLogic Privacy Controls powerfully cleans caches, allows you to permanently delete a variety of other files and permanently deletes cookies.