Regain your privacy through your browser's add-on's

With so many advertisers, social networks, and other companies interested in your data, it's pretty hard to stay private online these days. But don't reach for that tinfoil hat just yet! There are a few tools that can help privacy-conscious users shake privacy-smashing trackers off their tails.

Here's a look at three extensions that keep your connections to websites encrypted whenever possible, block companies trying to track you, and erase any browsing data cached in your browser.

HTTPS Everywhere (Chrome, Firefox, Opera)

Many popular sites and services—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—automatically encrypt browsing sessions using HTTPS, a.k.a. the security lock icon next to the website URL. But most sites that support HTTPS don't use it by default.

That's where HTTPS Everywhere comes in. Created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital advocacy group, HTTPS Everywhere forces your browser to use HTTPS encryption if the website makes it available. You don't have to actively do anything; just install the extension and let HTTPS Everywhere work its magic.

Abine Do Not Track Me (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari)

Do Not Track Me protects you from third-party tracking methods online.

First introduced in 2011, Abine's Do Not Track Me protects your web browsing from third-party tracking via cookies and other methods. These tracking companies can include ad networks, social networks such as Facebook, and other data collection outfits. Abine says DoNotTrack Me has blocked over 1 trillion attempts to track users since its introduction. That's either a nod to the popularity of DNTM... or to the high number of companies trying to track you online on any given day.

Using DNTM is easy. Just install it in your browser, and the extension keeps a running total in your Web browser of the number of cookies blocked on each site.

If you create an account with Abine and are willing to pay $5 per month, you can also use the extension to protect your email address, phone number, and credit card number when filling out web forms.

The downside of Abine's extension is that you ultimately have to put your trust in a private company. For those of you not willing to trust a for-profit business, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is working on a similar extension called Privacy Badger. The EFF extension is currently in alpha form and not ready for mass consumption, but you can still try it out if you don't mind having to deal with occasional bugs and functionality problems.

Click&Clean (Chrome and Firefox)

Click&Clean wipes out all your cached browsing activity in one click.

This useful browser extension takes your privacy to a whole other level by offering one-click erase for your browser cache, download and browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies, and flash cookies.

But Click&Clean is not a set it and forget it type of extension. Mixiesoft, the company behind Click&Clean, recommends reading its quick start guide before use. You may also have to do a little configuration in the settings so that the extension erases everything you want.

Nevertheless, once you're up and running, Click&Clean is very easy to use.

These three tools are just the tip of the privacy add-on iceberg, but they're a good foundation for closing the prying eyes of invasive trackers. If you want even more control over your online experience, be sure to check out PCWorld's guide to 16 powerful browser extensions that bend the web to your will.

Microsoft makes a "one time" fix to IE for XP users

Microsoft on May 1, 2014 shipped an emergency update for Internet Explorer to close a hole that hackers had already been exploiting.

But in an unexpected move, Microsoft allowed Windows XP machines to receive the update, even though it had long held that the 13-year-old operating system had absolutely, positively retired on April 8.

"I'm surprised they went out-of-band at all," said Andrew Storms, director of DevOps at security company CloudPassage, using the term for an emergency update outside the normal monthly patch cycle Microsoft maintains. "While there was a lot of talk about this zero-day, it was mainly focused on the XP angle."

In fact, today's turnabout was bigger news than the security update itself, something Microsoft tacitly acknowledged by posting a long blog post that dealt not with the patch or the vulnerability, but with its decision to give XP customers a break.

In that blog, Adrienne Hall, a general manager in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, made plain that today's release was the exception, not the rule, going forward. "We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP," Hall wrote.

Microsoft dropped XP from its support list three weeks ago.

Privacy Eraser Cleans & Optimizes Your PC, Securely Shreds Files

Windows and the applications that run on it have a tendency to store temporary data. All web browsers, for instance, automatically save cookies and browser history information to reduce webpage load times. Other programs also sometime save various preferences and settings leading to a slower system and putting one’s privacy at stake. Privacy Eraser is a Windows tool that helps you optimize and protect your system by cleaning up all such traces and past computer activities. The program is very easy to use, sports an excellent UI, and comes in two different variants. Let’s take a closer look at its free version.

Setup of Privacy Eraser is extremely easy, a simple download and installation following a straightforward wizard is all that’s needed to get the job done. And thankfully it’s free from any intrusive toolbars and unwanted crapware, something that many users will find welcoming.  Find out more here.

Safely Eject USB Drives And Memory Cards Via Hotkeys With USB Disk Ejector

Being a Windows user, you’d perhaps be familiar with the ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’ tool, which sits in the system tray and allows you to eject a plugged in USB flash device from Windows instead of directly pulling it out from your computer to prevent any opened files from being corrupted or lost. But if you are looking for a better way to disconnect your disks, let’s say, via keyboard hotkeys, then help is delivered by the open source tool called USB Disk Ejector. Once fired up, it displays a complete list of currently connected USB drives and memory cards and enables their safe disconnection from the system.  Click here for more information and to download.

PDF Eraser Lets You Edit PDF Files, Add Images & Text To Them

The best thing about of a PDF document is, in part, that it can be viewed on just about any device, on any desktop and mobile platform. It is one such handy format which allows everyone to see the same information, presented in the same way. If you occasionally work with PDF files, you may have encountered situations where you needed to alter a few things, for example, you may have wanted to split the PDF pages into individual files, or maybe you had to remove a few unwanted objects from the document itself. If you have not found a good application to accomplish that task, PDF Eraser is here to help. The free Windows program allows to remove any unnecessary objects, images, and text from PDF documents, annotate them and split a single file into multiple documents. Click here to see more and download the program.

Lyrics Finder Finds Lyrics And Adds Them To Your MP3 Files

Software developers face many challenges during development of a new application, but perhaps the greatest challenge of all is figuring out how to make their work stand out from the crowd. Some developers try to accomplish this by including as many features as they can to their project, but if you don’t have many resources and man power to achieve the same, you may just focus on a single key function and make that just as good as it can be. Lyrics Finder is one such brilliant example. It’s a free program for Windows and Mac OS X that aims to perform just one task and does it fairly well. It allows you to find lyrics of music files stored on your computer and automatically adds them to the track’s metadata.  Click here to find our more and to download the program