Hi,
Deleting your history does very little to deter such an investigation
when using Explorer, or any major browser. Each website/webpage you
visit, is downloaded to your computer, with all files (text, visual
graphics, flash etc) with it, and placed in the temporary folder on
the hard drive of your computer, so that you can read it. With these
also comes a number of cookies and adware programs. So if all you are
doing is clearing the history, the answer is definitely yes, anyone
with any skill can see when, where, and what.
To clear your history you went to Tools->Internet Options to the
General Tab and clicked on the ?Clear History? button. This clears the
scroll down address area, and the back and forward buttons. To show
you a demo of what is still on your computer, go to :
http://www.yahoo.com
Now go to Tools->Internet Options to the General Tab, and click on the
Settings? button in the Temporary Internet Files area. Once that is
open, click on the View Files button. A window will open which shows
all the temporary files from your web browsing, name, size and time
they last came in. You can select all of these, and delete them. Close
that window, close the Settings and Options window to get back to your
browser window sitting on the Yahoo site. Now, hit the Refresh button
(or press the F5 key)? then go back in and check the temporary files,
and you will see how much has been downloaded and stored on your
computer. (You may have to hit F5 here or go up one directory level
and then back in to see the files listed, sometimes they don?t show up
in the directory window right away? I don?t know why.)
Before you ask? no, there is no way to keep these from downloading,
you have to allow that part to see a page or picture. Also, once you
have deleted all of these files from your temporary folder, it still
doesn?t make them ?gone?. Many files downloaded through the IE browser
are listed and logged in your Registry as well. It would take someone
who really knew what they were doing to track your surfing habits
through there, but .. the information is available for those that want
to look.
Another area of checking is through the server. If you are talking
about a computer which is, let?s say, at work, and your business has a
server which your computer is connected too, then a log is also on
that server, which can be accessed by the administrator, detailing
times, dates, website and user IP address which made the request. Many
routers also keep temporary logs, which show travels and searches.
If you have pop-up blocking software, then at least some of your
history will be located in the log for that program, at least any site
which had a pop up window on it, so the program can remember what
sites to block, and what sites not to block.
If you are on an internal network, and don?t have access to the server
at administration level, then there is no way to erase your surfing
habits completely. If you are only asking about a stand alone system
at home with a direct connection, then you can clean that computer,
enough so that no one in your home could track you. Your ISP (Internet
Service Provider) will still have a log, but generally it takes a
subpoena to get them to say anything.
There is also a type of program, which loads on your computer called
?spyware?, which reports to a company server your web-surfing habits.
All in all, web surfing is really not very private, unless you have
gone to a few lengths to make it so, and even then, there are limits.
Some sites which may be useful to you.
Removing Surfing history
http://windows.about.com/library/tips/bltip278.htm
Clean out your browser cache
http://www.computeruser.com/articles/daily/8,8,1,0821,00.html
Cover Your Tracks
http://geekcorp.com/diskstate/doc/html/5-Tutorial-SysTools-Tracks.htm
A good ad-ware remover (has some good information there as well).
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
One of those cleaners, which isn?t a cleaner (rather sneaky).
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/library/iedriver/index.phtml
Thanks,
webadept-ga |
