Clearing Browser History No Match for Recovery Software
It’s comforting to think that when we clear our browser history any potentially incriminating information is eliminated for good. In fact, not only is the data easily recoverable, but any seasoned IT professional can find your secrets in 30 minutes or less.
Thomas W. Weber at The Daily Beast conducted a test, wherein he had a volunteer pollute a standard laptop with a myriad of pornography across three browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome). The types of sites visited ranged from the relatively tame to much more hardcore. Next, all of the browsers were cleaned using the standard “Clear Browser History” function they all contain.
The computer was then turned over to an IT tech. At first pass, he couldn’t recover any evidence of misuse. On further review, however, with the expert use of data recovery software, the tech was able to unlock all of the dirty details. The recovered cookies and temporary images provided a relatively thorough account of the smutty surfing history.
In this age of compromised privacy, the fact that your personal information can be resurrected even after it’s been erased seems completely unsurprising. It has been suggested, however, that using “Data Shredding” programs is the best way to secure your Internet usage from even the most skilled detectives. The shredding programs overwrite your cookies with random data files to the point that they can no longer be accessed by recovery software.
(Via The Daily Beast) / (Image by Mike McCune, licensed under Creative Commons)
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