Who's Spying on You? Book

Popular Mechanics magazine had an article based on a the book of the same name. I have not read the book yet but I have read the article. Something that I like to stress on this site is that doing technical things with a computer or with the software on it is not hard. Once you see how it is done, it really isn't that complicated.

I know with hackers, viruses, malicious web content and the like, keeping your computer and your identity secure can seem daunting; but it isn't.

Like most things in life, you do have some control over yourself and your possessions. It turns out, that after all the scary things people can do with your data, the person what gives out the most of your private information is you. In the article they stated that the business you interact with everyday use the information you freely give them and sell that information.

Online companies, FaceBook and many other entities use the information you post online and sell it. Other times they refine the information to better market things to you.

There are some solutions.
1. Be careful what personal information you share even with legitimate companies.
2. You can use anti-tracking software like Do not track me!

Remember the old adage, that once it is on the Internet, it isn't ever coming back.

Making sure deleted data is deleted

When you delete a file on a Windows based computer, or even if you format the computer, the files aren't really gone. What windows does is take off the label or 'header' of the file to let Windows know it can use the space for something else.
That is why in many cases you can get files out of your recycling bin, or you can buy a program that recovers deleted files. The information is still there, now the label, or nametag is gone. If you want to really delete a file, you need a program that deletes files entirely. There is a method for this kind deletion and it is the Department of Defense standard.

When you delete your internet browsing files, and when you delete those old and fuzzy pictures that aren't quite in focus, they're not really gone. Yes, even some files that might not exactly be appropriate. If you're not worried about what you do on the computer, who else has access to your computer? You may not do anything inappropriate on your computer, but a family member, coworker, friend or neighbor might.

When you delete something, you typically want it to be gone forever. Enter the program that I seem to be using more and more for whatever ails my computer, Ccleaner. There is an option in Ccleaner called 'Wipe Free Space'. When you run Ccleaner it warns you that if you check this option, it can take considerably longer to 'clean' your system. It is worth the extra time in my opinion. Below is a screenshot of the option grayed out at the bottom.

You can change the settings Ccleaner to wipe the free space on your system to run 1, 3, 7, or even 35 passes on your free space. The highest setting can take a considerable amount a time run, so be warned.

You files should definately be deleted after you run it this way.

If you are going to sell your computer, or sell a hard drive on Ebay or even give away your computer, I would recommend using a utility that will wipe the entire drive. There are many utilities that will do this, but use Active @ KillDisk. It is easy and quick to use. It is not hard to configure and this should take care of your files from the most curious of people besides law enforcement.

There are many ways to make sure a drive and it's files is unrecoverable. One that almost everyone has access to, and is 100% reliable is the hammer!

Just simply smash the hard drive till you hear the platters inside the drive shatter. I recommend you where saftey goggles and follow all safety procedures while using the hammer. Also, I personally use the claw end of the hammer, it seems to get the job done quicker. 

Backing up your Data :Updated 2 - 2 - 2012

I have uploaded the video of the class.

•Do you have one copy and only one copy of pictures of children, newborns, or special occasions onyour computer?

•Do you have only one copy of your mail archive?

•Do you have only one copy of that project you are working on?

•If you answered yes to any of these questions, this class and help you.

•It takes a lot ofmoney or time to back up your work or personal data.

This is not every back up option, but the easier options available.

There are backup options for online backup, ISP backups, Hard drive backups, flash drive and SD Card back ups, and even the old fashioned tape backups.

Here we will be discussing hard drive and flash drive back ups only.

Tools you'll need.

A flash drive or external hard drive with enough capacity to hold all your data.

They come in different shapes and sizes as well as different capacities.

You can purchase a flash drive (pictured above) with as little as 512MB of storage to as much as 128GB of storage. Obviously, the more capacity the drive holds the more expensive it it.

The other option is an external drive that also comes in all shapes, sizes, and capacities. Below is pictured a WD Passbook drive.

From this point forward I will refer to both the flash drives and external drives as 'personal drives'.

When you insert your personal drive into your USB port (illustration below)

You should get a pop-up window similar to this below.

Select Open folder to view files (highlighted option).

A window will open like the one above that will show you the contents of your personal drive.

All you need to do at this point is copy the files you want to back up to your personal drive.

If you double click your 'MY Computer' (Windows XP) icon or your 'Computer' (Windows Vista, 7) icon, you will see files to copy to the personal drive.

Windows 7 calls the location that holds your personal data 'Libraries', Window XP puts them under 'Files on your Computer', but you can just click on 'My Documents'.

Now with both windows open, the window showing your personal drive and the window showing your documents you want to copy, right-mouse-click on the task bar.

You should see the above menu. Select 'Show windows stacked' or 'Show windows side by side'. Either one, it doesn't matter, whatever you preference is. This way you'll see both windows together so you can just 'drag and drop' files.

Highlight and Drag your files from one window to another.

That's it, once the files are done copying, you have successfully backed-up your data. Now store the personal drive in a secure location!