If you're fairly new to Internet shopping scene, Windows (WIN'95, '98 and ME) has an excellent little feature that will tell you exactly what pages are secure and/or not secure on any site.

To access this feature open your browser to any site and on top toolbar, select "Tools" then "Internet Options", then "Advanced". In "Advanced" section, scroll down until you see "Security" options.

Once there, go ahead and check following boxes:

Warn about invalid site certificates Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode Warn if forms submittal is being redirected Once that's finished, click "Apply" then "OK"

You're finished. Your computer will now tell you when you're on a secure page and warn you when you're on a not secure page.

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If you're using a different browser than MSIE, use help option to find out if history & temporary files are available and how to access them.

If you're uncomfortable with idea of deleting these files manually, you can download several freeware programs from download.com that will do it for you. Just search for "disk space" in search box at top of page.

Part Two

Computers with Microsoft Internet Explorer come with a feature called "Auto Complete". It will automatically store passwords, web addresses, and other personal information. If you do not want your computer to do this you will need to turn feature off.

Here's how:

Open MSIE browser to any web page. On top toolbar, go to "Tools", then "Internet Options" Once in "Internet Options" menu, find and select "Content" tab. Under "Personal Information" heading, select "AutoComplete" button.

Make sure following boxes are UNCHECKED: Web Addresses Forms User names and passwords on forms

Select "OK".

You might also want to use "Clear AutoComplete History" option as well.

As a general rule, there are a lot of good things to be found in "Internet Options" menu. You might want to poke around and learn more about what you can do there.

If you use MSIE or Netscape, you can learn more about your Browser's security features here:

www.microsoft.com

www.netscape.com

Incidentally, this article is by no means end all of Internet privacy. You might wish to check out projectGUARDIAN pages at http://www.sunsetinn.net/guardian.htm for more information.