Privacy
Privacy
How do I stop people from viewing my history or personal information on my computer? Is it possible without buying any programs?
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AsaJay
- pantera pilot
- Posts: 596
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2003 8:56 am
- Location: Greater Pacific Northwest
Yes, you ditch windows and pick up a free copy of Linux, damn near anywhere.
Windows security sucks, as does it's privacy.
I had a friend who got a contract for computer support at NASA a while back. He walked in and did a quick eval of thier security.
First computer he walked up to, he found the general login screen (win9x). The guy who used the computer thought that was enough. My friend simply hit return, and showed them that the Windows desktop would still come up and they still had access to all the programs, files, everything, on that computer.
NASA was unamused.
XP is of course, better as you need to have a specific login, unless of course, you're like the millions of other people who let it default boot to your login, with no password or anything.
If you force others to login with thier own accounts, then you can get some small measure of privacy, but not much, as Microsoft figures anybody should be able to look at anybody elses stuff.
Then again, you can try to set permissions on everything, but that gets tricky under windows
What -specifically- are you trying to protect?
Windows security sucks, as does it's privacy.
I had a friend who got a contract for computer support at NASA a while back. He walked in and did a quick eval of thier security.
First computer he walked up to, he found the general login screen (win9x). The guy who used the computer thought that was enough. My friend simply hit return, and showed them that the Windows desktop would still come up and they still had access to all the programs, files, everything, on that computer.
NASA was unamused.
XP is of course, better as you need to have a specific login, unless of course, you're like the millions of other people who let it default boot to your login, with no password or anything.
If you force others to login with thier own accounts, then you can get some small measure of privacy, but not much, as Microsoft figures anybody should be able to look at anybody elses stuff.
Then again, you can try to set permissions on everything, but that gets tricky under windows
What -specifically- are you trying to protect?
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Rocketdork
- A.B. Normal
- Posts: 1489
- Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:13 pm
- Location: The City of NOT Spokane
- Contact:
Re: Privacy
There are only 2 sure ways to prevent somebody from seeing what is on your computer...canofcoke wrote:How do I stop people from viewing my history or personal information on my computer? Is it possible without buying any programs?
1. Don't let ANYBODY else on the machine at any time...lock it in a safe or something.
2. Don't use the computer.
Other than that, you can't prevent a determined person from seeing what and where you have been.
If you are trying to prevent your parents from seeing where you have been, this is not a good thing. If I had reason (and I don't) I would just install monitoring software that would allow my to see chats, passwords, email, etc...you wouldn't even know it was there.
The best way is just to stay away from places they don't want you to go.
"A man without a woman is like a statue without pigeons"
