Public Service Announcement

Browser histories are specific to the browser, and browsers are making it increasingly difficult to cover your tracks. Gone are the days when you could go to c:windowshistory and delete ... sadly :) Your best bet is to use a cleaner app because it knows where the browsers hide all their working files, at least the popular ones like IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc. This is the one I use:

www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

You can pick and choose how much history it deletes. Mostly I use it for cleaning out the temp files on my hard drive as they slow down a browser faster than anything. You can, however, choose a scorched earth policy where it removes every temp file on your computer, including the order of icons on your desktop.

lol @ not a terrorist/nothing to hide. frankly, i would much rather he NOT know my private thoughts at this point. it would only serve to further fracture what little peace i am able to maintain at home. so yes i do want to be sure what I am reading & e mails i am trading with others who are in SM are all privacy protected. and while i haven't done anything wrong with anyone, i have certqinly contemplated it & traded plenty of spicy e mails on the subject.

of course, my husband has been on at least one dating sight that i know of (about 5 or 6 yrs ago), and i also have a very racy txt message he sent to me (i think it was meant for someone else but he claims it was a virus that attacked his phone); however, i haven't made the effort to "spy" on his electronic trails.

so if he's spying on me, i'd like to know so i can call him out on it.

i have an iPhone and an iPad. supposedly, one cannot install tracking apps on these devices without them having been "jail broken" but i would like reassurance on that.

anyone have any ideas? i work in midtown NYC so should be able to find an expert locally problem is I don't know where to look or whom to ask.

TIA for your reply.

But if you are not a terrorist, you have nothing to hide, right? Right?

how can I check my iPhone to see if he's installed some sort of tracking on it?

please mail message me if you know the answer. tyvm!

Related to, but a bit off, topic.

Are you all looking forward to the day when none of this subterfuge is relevant or needed in you life ?

Tread your own path.

I have my own password protected laptop. Nothing is really completely safe. But since he's seen this website over my shoulder - he could look it up himself. He could read what I've written. But he just doesn't care enough.

My wife has asked "Do you talk about me online?" I said "Yeah."I have it set to delete history when I leave...I'm sure she could find out anything she wanted to though, she's a programmer. I think she doesn't want to find out.

The reason I came BACK as "someone else" is that my now ex tracked me to here....I now HATE HIM for that, but that is neither here nor there. He got an education....and immediately grasped what I had been telling him! Once i was telling it to strangers....I had been telling him dirwctly for YEARS. Sad...if he had listened to my unhappiness years ado, he might not have lost me....

In firefox there is private browsing right under the little red drop down in the latest version. This however does not stop your ISP from having the history of where the IP range connecting to your router has been.....dunno how "sharing" they may be with anything but the authorities ....

ALSO - as a tech guy, I use CCleaner after leaving each browser session. It deletes cookies, history, IIS temp files, and a host of other left behinds. Starting a new session and browsing sites like tool sellers, ebay etc. that are rich with text and pictures....writes new history. Often overwriting what was there. Careful it will also remove saved passwords and other stuff you might want to keep - don't go check-mark crazy or you will regret it.

If you are really worried - Darik's Boot and Nuke will DOD write your entire drive thrice - and replace everything with zeros. This of course means you will need to re-load your OS and software but....hey...in desperate moments. ? ? It is nearly impossible to recover this information post a DOD spec wipe....however if you ghosted the original state of your hard drive after you had it for a week or so, and got everything loaded and working right you can return it to working in about an hour or less. I use Norton Ghost to re-image a machine back to the "standard" load for the company I work for - takes all of 30 min or less to completely replace everything. Ghosting my home machine is a really good idea I just thought of.....so ....hmmm. 'puter needs to go to work to get a VPN install honey....LOL

Not to burst all of your bubbles, but unless you're running a specific government-grade cleaner, anyone with enough computer knowledge can find which sites you go to.

If you are using Firefox as your browser instead of lining Bill Gates' pockets. Under Tools - Options, go to Privacy. There you can activate two good options; 1 - "Tell Websites I Do Not Want To Be Tracked" and "Clear History When Firefox Closes. You also can activate a private browsing mode.

Isn't this WONDERFUL information? ;)

I have a program on both of my computers called "C Cleaner". I run it every browsing session. And I have nothing to hide-simply put, it makes the computer run faster if you clean your computer after every session.

I do that too...but hadn't thought of the cookies.I do use private browsing though and I monitor where he goes as I do sometimes feel he may be having an affair ;-)

On Safari, turning on Private Browsing is the way to go. (Menu: Safari -> Private Browsing...)

Avoid clearing your history as this will leave a recognizable hole in the browser log.

While surfing, occasionally turn off private browsing and go to some regular sites. Your history will appear as if you were doing normal things.

At the end of your session, open the history display (Menu: History -> Show All History), and then check to ensure that you didn't accidentally visit a site with the private browsing setting in the wrong position. If you see something that you don't like, you can select individual entries and then use the 'delete' key to remove them.

Remember to turn off Private Browsing at the end of your session. You don't want a tell tale indicator with the work PRIVATE in your address window.

A lot of browsers have "private browsing". Enable this and computer remembers nothing..

on an iPad or iPhone

in settings, click safari

click "clear history"
click "clear cookies"
anything that can be cleared--clear

also look for "databases" & click
then click "edit" & delete databases from any sites or e mail accounts

fwiw

I do that. But better yet, I have my own computer which I lock.

upper right, Tools, Internet Options, Clear history

I do that multiple times a day, including "top sites".