We all know that the Internet empowers users with instant information at their fingertips; information on tap, if you will. When surfing the web, one can purchase hard-to-find out of print books, check stock quotes, and play flash-based games or myspace a few hours away.

The Web is your portal to information strewn about all over the world. Unfortunately, most users don't realize the digital paper trail they leave behind when surfing with their favorite web browser. The information that you leave behind about your web surfing habits can be seen by prying eyes, and few enjoy having their personal information out in the open.

The following privacy information is important if you share your PC with other people and have only one user account, or if you use a public PC for personal activities like checking your email or your bank account. It's always a good idea to make sure that you clean up all of your private data after you use a public computer. When you're using a PC that isn't yours—pal's computer, library PC etc.—it's best not to check the 'remember my password' checkbox when logging into any of your personal accounts.

You'll often see this password recall checkbox when checking your web email or logging into your myspace account, and it's often labeled as 'Remember my password' or just simply 'Remember Me'; it's a popular web browser option, and it saves you from having to remember a multitude of passwords, as you'll not need to re-enter your username and password the next time you access the website, but common sense dictates that you should not check this option when using a computer that isn't yours, lest you want other people to easily log into your account when you leave.

Maintain your Privacy!

When you surf the web, jumping from link to link, checking your email inbox or buying books from amazon.com, your web browser stores certain information about your web activities. Your browser does this information collecting as a means to make your surfing experience more stream-lined and enjoyable, but, in the end, a lot of personal data is collected and stored directly onto the PC, leaving open a gaping privacy hole.

Such web surfing information may include data that was entered into web forms, the exact URLs of all websites you've visited, and your download history. If you desire to keep your web surfing habits private, it's always a good idea to tell the browser to clean up after a web surfing session. When using Mozilla's popular Firefox browser, cleaning up your personal data is easy.

Simply navigate on over to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Clear Private Data'; this simple menu command will discard all of your personal information in one fell swoop.

Buying Online: SSL

When you purchase goods online or if you're checking your bank account, always make sure that your browser has a 'secure' connection. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that makes sure that you have a secure connection with the website you are interacting with. When there's a secure connection established, you can be sure that your private data that you send will not get into the wrong hands.

When buying items online or checking your balance via your online bank account, you can be sure that you've a secure connection in Firefox by looking at the address bar. Firefox turns the address bar yellow and places a lock icon at the end. When you see this, you can be sure your connection to the web site is secure.

With the above yellow address bar and the lock icon I can be sure that my connection is secure and won't be intercepted for malicious purposes. Surfing the web is certainly an enjoyable experience, and knowledge is power. So the next time you're browsing the web on a public computer, make sure that you clean up your browsing tracks, maintaining your personal data and privacy.

When doing online shopping, checking your bank account or any other activity that includes sensitive information, always make sure that you've a secure connection with the web site. It's the best way to feel confident and safe when exploring the intricacies of the internet.

Major Jane Raymond USAFA

MER/IT

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