Scenario: Online privacy compromised by dangerous Web surfing, chatroom conversations or sensitive traces from popular programs

You have just visited some compromising Web sites. You are aware of the fact that your Web browser has stored text and images from those sites in a special folder for quick viewing later (Internet Explorer’s Temporary Internet Files or Mozilla Firefox cache or Google Chrome Cache). To hide your tracks (such as browsing history, index.dat files, cookies, cache, logs, Temporary Internet Files, autocomplete search history) and protect your online privacy, you use the Web browser’s option to delete any temporary Internet files (or the cache) stored on your computer.

Do you think you got rid of those compromising files? Think again! They are still on disk! Data recovery tools can easily recover those deleted files! You’d better start thinking: how am I going to explain to my boss (or worse: my wife) why I visited those sites? It is of the utmost importance to thoroughly wipe, overwrite and erase data to ensure secure deletion.

Or you have just used Adobe Photoshop to create brand images you would not like your colleague to know about, or you used Windows Media Player to watch some movies you would want to give explanations about, Microsoft Office to edit some compromising files, etc. No matter what application you used, Windows and the proper application itself keep track of every file you view, download, open, or create.

The solution: Privacy Guard

The Privacy Guard will seek out and destroy (Erase Beyond Recovery) the contents of folders that monitor and track your Internet usage and habits. It will also rid your computer of Windows “hidden” files and other data stored without your knowledge. Furthermore, you may also customize this feature to target specific files or folders that may contain sensitive or embarrassing information.

Besides the above, Privacy Guard ensures all your Windows and third party application usage history is erased for good! And it can remove these sensitive traces (such as recent documents history, network cache, Windows registry streams, searches, and much more) from over 300+ most known programs, applications used by people worldwide. Every month, a new version comes out that helps east-tec Eraser recognize and clear tracks in newly released software.

Online Privacy Protection for Beginners (Basic mode)

The Basic mode will run all the pre-configured defaults. This option is recommended for most users to ensure basic offline and online privacy protection.

1. Start east-tec Eraser.
2. In the ‘Privacy Guard’ box, click on the Play and a Stop Basic button.
3. Click the Play button.
4. You will see a confirmation panel that displays a list of items that are going to be erased. Click Continue if you want to start (you can disable this confirmation panel from Advanced Options).
5. You can see the status of the process on the screen, how much is left and when it is completed.

Online Privacy Protection for Advanced Users (Advanced mode)

The Advanced mode allows you to choose your own options for the Privacy Guard. It contains the following major components:

1. Start east-tec Eraser.
2. In the ‘Privacy Guard’ box, click on the Play and a Stop Advanced button.
3. From this window, select the categories of Sensitive Areas that you want to wipe (for example, Browsers, Burners, Image Tools, Download Managers, Messengers, Windows, etc.). You can also double click on each category to select one or more of the items from that category.
4. NOTE (to be included in the second version of east-tec Eraser): You can also select Custom Sensitive Areas. These are confidential data defined by yourself. They are also grouped into categories, in the same way as other sensitive areas. Click Create New to create a new category, or double click an existing one to edit it.
5. You may click Advanced Options in the toolbar to view or change other options. For more details, read the Advanced Options section.
6. Click Start to begin the wiping process.
7. You will see a confirmation panel that displays a list of items that are going to be erased. Click Continue if you want to start (you can disable this confirmation panel from Advanced Options).
8. You can see the status of the process on the screen, how much is left and when it is completed.

Selective online privacy protection: cookies to protect

Cookies are usually a major privacy concern, as they can be used to gather valuable information on your habits or interests. The Privacy Guard feature offers online privacy protection by deleting these cookies. However you may wish to retain specific cookies that make your Internet browsing convenient.

To protect the cookies for sites you visit frequently, just open the Privacy Guard and in the Browsers section select any of the browsers installed on your computer, click the Properties button and in the window that appears select Protect Cookies, then check the cookies you want to protect.

Windows and Internet Explorer “locked” files

After running the Privacy Guard you will be prompted to restart your computer. This step is necessary to delete certain “locked” Windows files. These are files that are used by Windows or by Internet Explorer and can only be erased while Windows starts. One of these files may be the Windows paging file, a file that may contain sensitive information collected without your knowledge or approval. The Internet Explorer history or cookies index files are also “locked” while Windows is running.

Not found application warning

In the Application Sensitive Areas sections (Archivers, Burners, Browsers, Download Managers, etc.) there is a list containing all the available applications you may select. If you want to check an application not installed on your computer, a warning message will appear prompting you that application does not exist on your PC.

Note: There is an option in Advanced Options, called ‘Autodetect installed applications when Privacy Guard starts’. By checking this option, all programs installed on your computer will be automatically enabled when starting Privacy Guard.