Trexar Improves Privacy with MacWasher
Trexar Improves Privacy with MacWasher — Trexar Technologies has released MacWasher, a Macintosh version of a program by Webroot Software that "washes" (deletes) pre-defined files from your hard disk to prevent later snooping and save disk space. MacWasher can empty the Trash to prevent electronic dumpster diving, and it cleans the Recent Documents and Recent Applications folders, so people can’t see what you’ve been working on. MacWasher also cleans the Temporary Items folder, MacsBug StdLog files, and enables you to set up custom folders or files for cleaning. MacWasher also cleans up after Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and America Online, deleting cache files, cookies (Netscape users can save selected cookies), and history to prevent someone from seeing where you’ve been online. MacWasher can also delete the Netscape Messenger Trash to eliminate deleted messages, but it doesn’t perform this task for other email programs. Of course, deleting a file doesn’t necessarily remove its data from your hard disk, so MacWasher lets you "add Bleach," which overwrites files up to ten times with random characters. Using the MacWasher application, you can change settings, simulate a wash (so you can see what it will do), or actually delete files. You can also set up automatic washing on a schedule or at startup or shutdown. MacWasher 1.0 is $30 shareware and is a 2.1 MB download. It requires a 68040 Mac or higher with System 7.5.1 and at least 5 MB of RAM. [ACE]