Cover your tracks! History Block and Securedelete

It never hurts to be too safe when dealing with files, documents, folders or browsing history of extreme secrecy. Here are two methods to ensure that your privacy is kept intact. The first is Tweak Now Securedelete, which can be used to permanently delete files and folders (I’m not talking about emptying your recycling bin kind of secret, this REALLY gets rid of them). Data Recovery Specialists can recover most, if not all, of the data that you deleted through your recycling bin. Securedelete is supposed to make data deleted through this method completely irrecoverable so this is good for stuff you want to keep ultra secret.
Here is a quick rundown of this extremely simple to use and free software or free-ware. Get Securedelete here . It is a small file (3.75MB) so it downloads and installs rather quickly. When you click Download a confirm installation window will appear that looks like this:

Click ‘Save File’ and the download will proceed. Then open the new file from your download bar, window, folder or however you have your setting configured and follow the installation instructions.
When you open the program it will look like this:

It is very simple and the large window can be resized to fit your preferences. Click either the ‘Add File’ or the ‘Add Folder’ button and then select the objects that you want to PERMANENTLY erase beyond any possible recovery. Once you have a folder or file selected then the ‘Remove’ and ‘Delete’ buttons will encolorize. The ‘Remove’ button just removes the object from the list and puts it back where it came from. The ‘Delete’ button will erase the object from the known universe, never to see the light of day again. And, yes, it is as simple as that.

Note: I do not endorse you downloading scandalous files, even though you now have a secure way of removing your tracks permanently. Just kidding. But seriously.


The second is History Block. So what this Mozilla only add on does is allows you to select certain sites that will never show up in your browsers history. You can type in any sites that you want to be excluded and they will never show up nor can your excluded sites be viewed in this app (because that would void the entire purpose!). There are others ways to gain added privacy with out History Block, such as starting a private browsing session or setting your browser prefs to not save history or cookies/cache. In my opinion this is much cooler than those and much more practical. Here is a quick walk through of the download and installation (which is uber easy) and a view of the user interface.
Click on the History Block link above and click the ‘Download Now’ button. A Window will pop-up unless you have pop-up blocker on, in which case you will need to allow this instance.

Then it will automatically install (in like a second) and this bubble will show up:

So restart FireFox and History Block will be running, but you have not entered any sites yet. To do that go to your Add-Ons manager and click on the Extensions tab. There you will see History Block along with any other add-ons you have. To add a site, just simply click the ‘Options’ button and a tiny window will pop up that allows you to enter a site. Once again: sites you add to the blacklist cannot be viewed by you or anyone, so rest assured. You can unblacklist any sites you want via this window as well.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your newly acquired privacy. Cheers!