I’ve already mentioned tips such as “forgetting your passwords” (not allowing the browser to store them), with respect to laptop security, and it’s good to be reminded of even the most simple, basic security precautions. Even experts need to be reminded sometimes, and certainly most other people do.

The latest versions of most of the major web browsers include a “private surfing” capability that essentially covers your tracks as you surf. This feature is not merely useful to those who “have something to hide” about how and where they surf the web, from some kind of legal or ethical standpoint. Even those who have nothing to hide from their friends and family do have something to hide from a laptop thief sitting at the keyboard.

The more that thief, or the person/organization to whom he sells the stolen laptop, can dig up easily, the more likely he is to gain access to information or capabilities you don’t want him to have. For example, if your browser history reveals your banking website, *and* you have your password stored, he’s right in. That’s a worst-case scenario.

But even if you don’t have your password stored, the criminal still has something to go on, knowing where to try to break in. You might as well slow him down by not making it so easy in the first place.

This also brings up the notion of bookmarks. If you bookmark your banking websites, and other sensitive sites, beware. The thief can peruse your bookmarks as well.

This is why MyLaptopGPS deletes files like bookmarks and browser histories–data you simply don’t want a thief to have.