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Photos by Caesar Lima - www.caesarphoto.com > Model Lindy Christofer > Assistant: Guillermo Franco > Assistant: Sebastian Gutelip

A second option for regulating cookies dispersed in various locations on a computer is software. Programs like Webroot Software's (www.webroot.com) MacWasher are capable of eliminating many of the tracks Internet users leave behind them. Using a function called cookie keeper, MacWasher can remember what cookies are required for a specific user's web-browsing experience while deleting superfluous cookies that take up space or originate from data-miners. MacWasher also is capable of cleaning out a user's cache, history, mail trash, and auto-complete forms, making it an excellent option for computer users interested in keeping extraneous information off of their computers.

Webroot also manufactures a program called Spy Sweeper, which is capable of neutralizing spyware - data-mining software that can install itself on a computer without the user knowing it. While spyware has traditionally been endemic solely to PCs, the rise in file-sharing programs like Limewire and Kazaa has increased the incidence of spyware installing itself on Macintoshes. Spyware can surreptitiously gain access to a user's hard drive by bundling itself with shareware programs that are widely downloaded. Programs like Spy Sweeper root out spyware programs, protecting Internet users from covert habit-tracking software.

A final privacy concern for Internet users is email. Unencrypted email can be read by system administrators or Internet prowlers before it ever reaches its destination. Two options - one web-based (www.hushmail.com) and the other functioning with email programs like Eudora and Outlook (www.mutemail.com) - exist for Internet users interested in encrypting their emails. These two programs can also provide email anonymity, masking a user's IP address.

In order to ensure maximum privacy, it is important Internet users judiciously guard their identities from online trollers and spyware programs. Masking IP addresses, managing and monitoring cookies, encrypting email, and cleaning out histories, cache files, email trash, and log files from chat programs can greatly increase security and minimize unwanted advertisements and spam email from third party data-miners and marketers. A little common sense coupled with emerging security software are all Internet-surfers need to begin reclaiming their online privacy.