Private Browsing – May Not Be As Private As You Think
The dangers of the Internet are well publicised and there are always stories in the news and technology blogs about the latest scam or virus infiltrating computers everywhere. There are multiple software solutions available to fight back against those who choose to misuse the power of the web, one of the most recent being a modification to browsers, fighting identity theft at the source.
Private browsing is the name given to one of the latest additions many popular browsers have already started to incorporate. The premise of private browsing is to clear the browser of any personal information or information that has been stored in the browsers cache.
Most browsers store information such as visited pages, passwords, cookies and web form entries. These are mostly stored to aid the user experience, either offering a convenience or to improve the speed at which the browser works and navigates the web. Auto completion for example is a great time saver, nobody likes entering the same log in details over and over again, but unfortunately this does mean that if not cleared properly these details may be available to subsequent users of that browser. Private browsing has been developed to remove such information and provide a more secure experience.
There are many leading security experts however, questioning the effectiveness of private browsing functionality. It has been seen in various tests that it can conflict with any browser add-ons which have been added by the user, or with any existing security measures already in place on secure websites. For this reason, relying solely on private browsing may not be the best course of action to protect your identity online.
This information is not to say that you should never complete a form or perform a search in a search engine online. There are other steps you can take to ensure that your browsing is kept as private as possible, and of course, if you are ever using a public or shared computer it is advised that you take a much more diligent view. It can be quite scary to re-visit a web page and find all of your details already filled in and if it can happen at home it can happen in a library or internet cafe.
Relying solely on software to keep your personal information secure whilst browsing the web is not the best solution. It is better than taking no precautions, but to keep your security at its optimum when online enable private browsing but also take the time to check anything that private browsing may have missed.
CY4OR are a leading forensics analysis company in the UK.
