The Defenders

Admit it: you've got files on your computer you wouldn't want anyone else to see--employee evaluations, your monthly sales figures, maybe even a love letter from a colleague. Come to think of it, you probably have e-mail you'd rather keep private, too. And as for your surfing habits, well, it's nobody's business but your own where you go on the Web and what you see--right?

Unfortunately, staying private in the digital age isn't easy. Even if a thief never steals files off your PC, you leak information about yourself just by going online. "Going Private" offers tips on how to keep your files and online activities confidential. In this article, we tell you which products are best for implementing your new security plan. We reviewed 28 anticookie, antispam, and encryption utilities--as well as a few other security tools--that promise to keep snoops at bay, at home or in the office. We encountered a lot of duds, but we found at least one product in each category that's worth installing.

We also looked at a handful of futuristic products that herald a growing trend in security: biometrics. These devices use physiological measurements such as fingerprints and iris scans to grant data access. In "Body Blocks: The Future of Security Is Biometrics," we found that the latest retail biometry products work well--just be prepared to share a little more with your computer than you're accustomed to.