How to Plug Security Holes in Your Browser
To protect your browsing history, try the free Private Browsing feature in Apple's Safai or the Distrust add-on for Firefox. For complete anonymity, try the fee-based Anonymizer or the free Tor.
You depend on your Web browsers to link you with the information you need every day. But don't let your browsers bank information about you that may be damaging or embarrassing.
Browser history snooping
Why you should care: Maintaining your online privacy can save your job -- and your marriage.
Scenario: Just because you think you have nothing to hide doesn't mean that your PC's record of your browsing history can't get you in trouble. In the absence of any clarifying context, an observer might easily misconstrue entries in a list of sites you recently visited.
Fix: Try using your browser's private browsing feature -- but don't depend on it. Long a feature of Apple's Safari browser, private browsing is praised as a way of surfing the Web without leaving a trail of Web site addresses behind you. Once you turn on Private Browsing in Safari, Apple says, you won't leave any traces of the sites you subsequently visit.
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Top security risks and how to minimize them:
- 17 high-risk security threats (and how to fix them)
- Stop operating-system attacks
- Lock down the data in your apps
- Keep your cell phone info private
- Safeguard your online security
- Protect your online passwords
- Beat card skimmer scams and other money drains
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Add-ons for the Firefox browser offer Windows users the same benefits: Distrust gives Firefox 2.x and 3.x users a way to manage their browsing history, though some files that Firefox temporarily writes to disk don't get erased until the end of the browsing session. Firefox 3.1 (currently in beta form) is likely to add more comprehensive private browsing features to the browser itself. To help users manage the new features, two add-ons -- Private Browsing and Toggle Private Browsing -- provide granular control over the settings. (Warning: In recent testing by a security firm to see which browsers' tools do the best job of protecting against tracking by Web sites, Safari's private browsing capabilities came in last place; Firefox, Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 beta also fared poorly.)
But no browser can completely prevent sites from tracking your visit. For maximum anonymity, you need to use a service such as the fee-based Anonymizer or the free Tor.
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