Deleting Unwanted Stuff on your PC

[Rod Serling]

If you visit any Internet site that is either sensitive, tasteless, subversive or maybe even illegal, do Google/Microsft/your ISP report you to thr authorities?

Secondly, if you do happen to stumble or even deliberately go to those sites, is there a reliable piece of software that will zap them (without professional recovery/detection), and any trace that you'd been there, preferably free, without wiping your entire hard drive or needed files/programs?

Haven't dipped my toes in the water, i hasten to add, just curious!

[VHG]

As far as I know, nobody actually REPORTS any web activity to the authorities.

However details of your web searches is kept by Google (and other search companies), and details of web sites visited is kept by your ISP for a certain period.

I guess if the "authorities" suspect a person was involved in crime or terrorism then that would allow their web activities to be kept and used as evidence.

Windows keeps all sorts of information under the covers, often as hidden files, so I believe it would be VERY difficult to completely remove ALL evidence of web activity.

Even wiping your hard drive (with say a format) would not remove all files from the hard disk, and a simple recovery tool found on the web could "find" deleted files.

There are tools that can scrub a hard drive by writing "rubbish" over it over and over again, but on a large hard dirve that can take hours or even days to run.

There are ways of doing "secret" web activity (using a proxy I think or maybe other methods) but I have no details of how to do it.

I am sure someone can help you, or maybe search the web.

[ACtheTROLL]

actually it depends what you are looking at ...
by law ISPs keep records if your online activity for 3-5 years ... just in case - the police and security services are the most likely - but companies such as sony also buy access them when having a purge on p2p pirating

some subversive sites are monitored - that's one of the internal security services' "triggers" ... look once - and unless you are under scrutiny - you'll probably not be openly monitored - but even then you could set wheels in motion that will look for you doing it again.

If it's porn - pretty much not - even if it's (shall we say) a niche interest in philes - if it's terrorist/bomb/animal rights extremist - they may decide to monitor for a period - and may just have a look to see what your other interests are.

all pretty straight forward

as for lifting evidence - they'll get you if you are worth it - it's virtually impossible to completely clean a HDD even with full gutmann 35 pass.

as for free software ... I'd pay - 10 years is a long time to hold on to the soap

and encrypted files are treated like breath tests - refuse ... and you're guilty anyway

the listening algorithm thing is pretty much a myth - too much traffic - but html is plain text - sniff a server or site - and it's easy.

hope this sets your mind at rest ... however of course - it's just the non-classified info ...