Hello cherry,
I am going to start by addressing the first partof your question,
although both are related somewhat.
“Tracing” an actual email that has been deleted from your computer is
still possible. For example, if you were to have sent an email to
another person, the email sent has header information that can be
linked to your ip address which is unique to you, and the route of an
email can be verified as being sent from or received on your account
by the records of your internet service provider. Information that is
probably recorded is the specific date, time, size etc. of the email
sent. Deleting the copy on your computer is not going to make the copy
on someone else’s computer go away, nor will the fact that your sent
folder is blank be useful as evidence that the email was never sent.
In much the same way, if someone had sent you an email, they would
still have the email on their computer in their sent box.
Also, when you delete a file from your computer's hard drive, the file
is not actually "deleted". What happens is that the operating system
"forgets" the where the file is on the hard drive, and allows the
space where the file is located to be used by another file in the
future. Now suppose that you were to install a different program, or
create a new document. Perhaps the new file would cover part of the
area where the old email was deleted, but not the entire area. Even at
this point, part of the email would still be recoverable using an
undelete or recovery utility.
There is an excellent HowStuffWorks.com article on how deletion works
in Windows (this also applies to other operating systems), and even
though it talks about the recycle bin, the same principles apply to
deleting something from your email program. You can read the article
here:
“A common misconception is that the data is actually removed from the
hard drive (erased) when you delete a file. Any time that a file is
deleted on a hard drive, it is not erased. Instead, the tiny bit of
information that points to the location of the file on the hard drive
is erased. This pointer, along with other pointers for every folder
and file on the hard drive, is saved in a section near the beginning
of the hard drive and is used by the operating system to compile the
directory tree structure. By erasing the pointer file, the actual file
becomes invisible to the operating system. Eventually, the hard drive
will write new data over the area where the old file is located.”
SOURCE: http://www.howstuffworks.com/question578.htm
There are several programs available that will attempt to permanently
purge your hard drive of deleted data by writing random data to the
hard drive, (in many cases this is done multiple times to make it even
more secure). Various government agencies and corporations will
actually physically smash up a hard disk once it has served its
purpose for the best security.
SOURCE: http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/66/lev3/68/pid/751/qid/542436
Now if you are a normal user who is concerned about privacy, or are
perhaps considering selling your computer to a third-party and
concerned about security, you will be well served by numerous
utilities that are available to remove the emails permanently from
your hard drive. Here are some examples of products that claim to
permanently delete data from your hard drive:
http://www.ontrack.com/dataeraser/
http://www.cyberscrub.com/
In addition, many AntiVirus packages, such as McAffee’s Internet
Security come with basic tools to “permanently” delete data, although
the software does not specialize in this, so you might want to
consider a product such as the two listed above.
http://www.mcafee.com/
Onwards to part II now, specifically the “browser” logging aspect.
Again, all of the above applies as your temporary internet files,
cookies and history can be “undeleted” because all that is really
being deleted is the references to the cookies, htm files or history
files. In addition, because these files are so numerous and tiny,
chances are that some of them will survive after years of writing to
your hard drive, so to truly delete these you would need software such
as the Ontrack or Cyberscrub software listed above (or one of the many
competitor products). Also keep in mind that the following information
also applies to the emails sent and received from and to your
computer, but that most likely the content of the email is probably
not logged by your isp (just the fact that a specific email address
was sent would be logged, not the actual text of the email). Your
surfing history however, can and probably is logged in numerous ways
beyond your control.
Unfortunately, there are even greater problems with having your
browsing being logged that goes beyond the above. You may be
interested in reading the following article which covers many of the
ways that your surfing history can be tracked:
http://www.netforlawyers.com/lacba_privacy_article.htm
I am going to briefly point out some of the ways that your browsing
history can be logged in point form:
-On your computer in your surfing history, cookies, temporary internet
files. You can clear them, but remember that this only removes
“references” to the files, so by scanning your hard drive, someone
could find them. These files can be removed however, by using
“permanent removal” removal software. Note that even if cookies are
disabled, and your hard drive is completely free from any records your
surfing history can still be tracked by all of the following ways:
-When you visit a website, they will normally record your ip address,
your rough geographical location, the date and time as well as other
information. In addition they may have the capability to record your
isp user name or email address, which is directly linked to your
account. If you have given a website any information such as your
name, phone number etc., all of the above information could be looked
up to even better identify you. A website that has your ip address may
be able to use a database to find out who you are, or they may contact
your isp requesting this information.
-Many internet service providers will keep records of their users
surfing history, often for their own legal protection and to make sure
their users are not violating the isp contract. They would probably
have a record of what other ip addresses your own ip address connected
to, and the other ip address could then be easily resolved into which
websites you visited. In addition, your isp may use another isp which
may also record information that could be used to trace you. Also the
isp of the website you connected to would have your ip address as
well, which could also be used to trace to you.
-Internet traffic flows throughout the world from one computer to
another. If someone managed to infiltrate a point between your
computer and the computer you are connecting to, they could see the
data being transferred. The sheer size and amount of data makes this
one unlikely, but it is technically possible. Encryption helps to
prevent this from happening, but most internet websites are not
encrypted.
-Various government agencies can, and probably do intercept data on
the internet including surfing history or habits (and also emails).
Here is an article which discusses one example of this in the United
States: http://www.netforlawyers.com/lacba_privacy_article.htm
-Finally, a co-worker, other person or organization could have
installed a secret program on your computer, a computer that connects
to your computer (on your LAN), or even on your ISP’s computer that
could log and keep track of your surfing history. Also, a device could
by physically attached to the wire where you get your internet access
from, that could in theory record everything that happens.
Now unless you are in trouble with the law, civil or criminal, your
probably do not have to worry too much about any of these. You might
want to consider purchasing software to permanently remove deleted
items from your computer, but even this is probably not necessary
unless you have something of significant importance that needs to be
hidden. It is a good idea to run such software if you are planning on
giving or selling your PC to a third party.
Unfortunately, to truly delete your surfing history, and emails that
you have sent or received, you would not only have to purge or smash
your own hard drive, but the hard drives of every other person that
you have sent to and received emails from, your isp, the isps and
computers of the websites you have visited and maybe a government
agency or two. Note that most of these websites cannot identify you as
a person unless you have given them personal information or they are
able to connect your ip address to you as a person (through your isp,
and your isp can of course, do this). Basically though, even if you
secure your hard drive, your browsing history probably is logged
somewhere.
I hope this is the sort of answer you were expecting. Let me know if
you require any clarifications and I will do my best to further assist
you.
tisme-ga
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