Physical Barriers

Of all the various privacy protection methods, barriers are the easiest to implement. Barrier security is founded upon the simple premise that the fewer people who have access to a computer system, the less the likelihood that the system will be subjected to unauthorized access. The physical location of a computer storing personal information should be in a lockable room, just as you would lock a desk drawer or file cabinet. If you have more than one computer you should consider isolating one computer from the Internet and storing financial records or other private information on the isolated system. The most proficient hacker/cracker in the world cannot access a system with which they have absolutely no contact.

Firewalls, Web Filters, and Tracking Detection Firewalls
Any computer system that accesses the Internet should be equipped with a firewall to enable the user to detect and prevent unauthorized access to the computer through the Internet connection. This writer uses the Norton Internet Security Suite from as his primary firewall. This application provides an integrated system for intrusion attempt detection, blocking advertisements on the Internet, anti-virus scanning, and privacy filtering to prevent private information like credit card numbers from being sent out to the Internet. An alternative free firewall application called “Zone Alarm” can be obtained from

Web Filters
Your browser keeps a record of which site was just visited, which empowers the “back” button. The Web sites that you visit can obtain and record this information. Therefore, if you visit site where anarchy, AIDS, or atheism are discussed and then proceed to online shopping sites where you complete order forms, or otherwise divulge your identity, this tracking could lead to an undesired disclosure of information about your interests. An online demonstration of this disclosure can be viewed at

You can block referrers several different ways, including with filtering software such as The Proxomitron, which is available from Proxomitron is a proxy server that runs locally on your machine, filtering inbound and outbound traffic. If you’d prefer not to have web filtering software installed on you computer, you can use online web filtering tools such as Anonymizer at or Rewebber at These sites redirect your Web traffic through their machines, filtering the outbound traffic and removing all identifiers, including your IP address, from your packets.

Tracking Detection
Because website tracking occurs invisibly, and mostly on the server side, it is difficult to detect which websites may be keeping an ongoing record of a user’s activities. One free product that makes this information available to a user is the Privacy Companion from Activity tracking programs, such as the previously mentioned Spector, can be detected and deactivated by performing a scan using a product called Who’s Watching Me, available from Battles between the activity loggers and the logger detectors occasionally erupt, as was the case recently between Who’s Watching Me and WinWhatWhere Investigator.