Is there a way to prevent companies from seeing anything you do on the computer?

[neosho_wildcat_graduate_2007]

I would like to know if there's a way to block such websites, IP addresses, etc. from seeing what you use in things like what you write on myspace, facebook and even tools of theirs that can be useful to you and/or others.

Can anyone tell me just how to block such companies from seeing what you do online?

[vorro]

in general, people (ideally) won't see what you do on your computer, but can see what you do on theirs. in other words, facebook and myspace and other such sites are rather public - to "block" your activities on such sites would be counterproductive to the entire purpose of such sites.

[Health Guy]

There's two different situations here:

1) If you're talking about software that you install, then you can uninstall the software. For example if you install Real Player, Real can probably monitor some anonymous data about what you watch for marketing purposes. If you somehow disable this behavior, the program might not work properly

2) If you're talking about surfing the web, companies use cookies to track what websites you visit for advertising purposes. This way, if you visit a lot of web sites about cars, you'll see ads about cars and you're more likely to click those relevent ads. You can disable cookies which might break some web sites. You can also use a proxy server which lets you surf anonymously so that those companies can't track you. They'll track the proxy. Try http://punchthrough.com or google proxy servers for more sites you can do this at.

[widechannel955]

Your question was a little vague to me, I wasn't sure if your talking about your home computer or your office computer.

On My Home Computer I find what works for me is;

1) Use the Mozilla Firefox browser. Internet explorer has been a big target of too much adware / spyware.

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/firefox/

2) Install the adblock plug-in from firefox addons. this will stop those pop up ads on web pages.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

3) Learn how to disable cookies & exempt only those for trusted sites.
For firefox you access cookie control under tools - options - privacy.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security..._help.html

4) Get a good spyware/ adware remover program and run the remover at least once amonth. some recommended Freeware programs;

Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
adaware - http://www.lavasoft.com/

Even yahoo toolbar has a spyware remover on it now.

I hope these steps can help with your home computer.

As for your office it would depend on the companies IT rules. Most office networks limit access to IT personnel when it comes to modifying or installing software. Some companies go so far as to install software packages that track the web addresses accessed by each employee. best rule of thumb is, if you company is draconian about office computer use than don't do it at work.