Every day, it seems, there is another violation of privacy case that appears in the news. Most people wouldn't want the information of which websites they have visited to become common knowledge.

Basic Internet Exporer History Wipe

Clear internet exporer history by going to Tools > Internet Options and clicking on the 'Delete Files' button and 'Delete Cookies' button. You could also reduce the number of days to keep pages in history down to '0' and click on the 'Clear History' button inside the History section of this window.

While all of these steps will basically clear internet exporer history so that there is nothing obvious that someone else can see, they don't keep your information truly private from someone with knowledge. Trying to delete internet explorer history manually is a next to impossible task for a number of reasons.

Hidden System Files

If you've done the steps outlined in the previous paragraph, you may think you have deleted everything of a personal nature. Unfortunately, that isn't true. Microsoft stores personal information in other places like the index.dat file. Index.dat files are stored on your computer and contain the URL of every website you have every visited along with a record of every email you have sent or received via Outlook or Outlook express.

These files are considered system files so if you try to search for them, you won't readily be able to find them. If you do manage to find them, you won't be allowed to delete them because Windows is currently using them. So how can you delete them? You need to use a third party software program.

Why you need a professional program

There are literally hundreds of nooks and crannies in your system where data can hide out. Even when you erase your data, it can be recovered. In many cases, even when you forcibly overwrite the data you just erased, it can be recovered. The only surefire way of making sure the data on a hard drive cannot be read is to incinerate it. This doesn't help anyone who needs their computer of course.

Even if you could track down all the various nooks and crannies that you need to erase, some will not allow you to erase them. The index.dat file is one expample of such tenacious files. Erasing all of these files is best accomplished with a dedicated program that specializes in this.

What program should I use?

There are many programs out there with varying capabilities. There are a few listed on the top right of this page. You could also do a search for them at download.com. 'delete internet explorer history' is one place to start with a search engine search. You may want to try 'disk wipe' or 'clean files' as a starting place. Either way, getting serious about your online privacy is a smart thing to do.