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How Private Is Your Computer
The
answer is "Not at all private". Not only can a hacker break into
your computer, or someone dump a trojan on your system, but anyone who has
access to your computer, and has a little knowledge of Windows, can
"read" all sorts of embarrassing information about you on it.
On your home computer that means your family, and on your work computer
that means your boss and your colleges. Do not rely on
"passwords" and "user profiles", at work your boss will
have "master access" to all computers, and many of the people you
work with will have enough knowledge to be able to override your password
(it is not difficult). At home your kids will also be able to override your
password. Believe me, your kids will be more computer wise than you.
If your computer is at home do you ever visit a site you do not want your
family to see. Maybe it is something as simple as a surprise gift for your
wife, or something more serious such as a do it yourself divorce site.
Either way you do not want your wife to accidentally (or deliberately) see
what you accessed. And what about your kids, there must be sites that you
visit that are either unsuitable for children (and I do not just mean porn,
there are plenty of things it is OK for an adult to look at, but not kids),
or things that it would be embarrassing for your children to see (Do you
want them to know that you visited a Viagra site, a birth control site, an
extreme political site, etc.).
And if your computer is at work do you want your boss to see what sites you
visited ? Even something simple like you visited the competition's
site to see how you can be better that them can be misinterpreted. Your
boss may assume you were thinking of resigning or even selling your
company's information to the competition.
And what about the financial aspect ? Your computer stores things that
you type into it. Say, for example, you use your credit card on a totally
safe and trustworthy site. They will not rip you off, but your computer now
has a note of your credit card details, and if another site forces a trojan
onto your computer they will be able to access that information and use it
to spend money on your card.
Plus you have to worry about serious misunderstandings. Here is a
frightening but possible scenario (as you read this remember, this sort of
thing HAS HAPPENED to other people, it COULD HAPPEN TO YOU).
Imagine your kids are being bullied by someone. Typically they will not
come to you, but you will see the signs. You want to help, but you do not
know the best way to go about it (you have no idea who is doing the
bullying, and your kids are too afraid of the bully to tell you about it).
So you do the sensible thing, you hit the net, you visit all sorts of sites
on violence against children.
At the same time you noticed the signs so did one of your kid's teachers.
But they did not assume bulling, they assumed child abuse by the parents
(you), and called the police. Normally there will be an embarrassing
investigation but you will be cleared. But what if the police search your
hard drive ? They will find evidence that you were visiting sites that show
violence to kids and will consider this evidence that you were looking for
ways to hurt your children. The result will be your kids
taken into care and you will go to jail for a long time.
Do you really want to risk this ? I don't. That is why I use,
recommend, and sell "System Cleaner". This cheap, simple piece of
software will search through your computer and clean out all incriminating
files. It is totally configurable, so can be set to delete or not delete
any area that you like. And it is the only way to protect yourself.
Computers can be dangerous places, but they should not be. They should be
safe friendly places where you can both work and play without worry. Once
they were, back in the early days of computing. And you can regain that
time, you can make your computer a safe environment and use it without
worry. Download System Cleaner now and see what a difference it makes.
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