Privacy software

If you’re concerned about what people might find on your computer, then privacy software will give you peace of mind. It lets you erase your online activity and web browsing history and permanently delete files and other sensitive information – keeping your private things private.

Privacy software explained

Online banking, sending personal messages, chatting to friends … as computers and the internet have become embedded in our lives, we’ve begun using them for more and more private tasks. At the same time, the amount of data stored about when and how we use our computers has increased hugely.

What’s more, modern computers save private information in places where it can be accessed quickly. This can be convenient – for instance, many web browsers store your passwords, so you don’t have to remember them. But it can also be dangerous. What if your passwords fell into the wrong hands?

Take back control of your data

Privacy software helps you take control of your data in order to control your privacy. It does this in two main areas:

• Internet privacy. Privacy software can eliminate your web browsing history and all traces of websites you’ve visited – as well as any stored usernames, passwords or other details. It can also scan for tracking ‘cookies’ placed on your computer by websites that want to monitor your online behavior, making it easy to remove any you’re not comfortable with.
• Files and data on your computer. Privacy software can inspect your computer for temporary and system files which contain personal or private information. You might not be able to see all these files yourself, yet they can contain all sorts of data. An automatic scan will create a list of files and potentially private data – then you can choose what to do with them.

Most privacy software also includes a ‘scrubbing’ function, to ensure that anything you delete from your computer is deleted and then overwritten several times – so it can’t later be recovered.