How to monitor someone’s computer and how to prevent someone from spying on your computer activity.
I recently had an interesting discussion with a woman going through divorce who was concerned about her spouse spying on her. She had already changed her email and Facebook passwords and wanted to know if there was anything else she could do. She had never heard of computer monitoring software otherwise known as Keyloggers.
Keylogger software is readily available to allow someone to spy on your computer activity. The most common uses for this software are:
- An employer that wants to monitor an employee’s computer activities.
- A parent that wants to monitor their kid’s online activity.
- A person in a relationship that wants to monitor the activity of their significant other.
If you use web monitoring software on another person’s computer without their knowledge then you are basically spying on that person. I’m sure some will argue the technical points of who actually owns the computer to try to justify the activity but at the end of the day it’s still spying.
Having said that, all three cases outlined above might still represent legitimate reasons to use monitoring software. How can spying be a legitimate activity you ask? Well, if someone is lying, cheating, or stealing from you then I’d think you’d want to know about it. Software to monitor a computer levels the playing field and gives you the upper hand when dealing with this type of individual.
If you want to monitor someone’s online activities I suggest you let them know you are going to be checking up on them. Unless you’re prepared to be viewed as a spy and destroy whatever trust is in place if caught spying then this is a good policy. If you would like a Free program to monitor your kid’s computer usage then I suggest McGruff Safeguard.
If you aren’t lying, cheating, or stealing then chances are you shouldn’t be worried about your computer activities being monitored. The exception would be an employee who is visiting sites that they shouldn’t during working hours or sending personal emails from a work computer. Remember, that’s not your computer it’s the companies, and a high percentage of businesses install and use this type of software to monitor their employees.
OK, back to the lady that is going through divorce and wants to make sure she’s not being spied on. Much advice is given about how to spy on someone but how do you prevent being a victim of computer spying?
This advice is for someone using a personal computer and assumes that a spouse or someone else they don’t trust has had access to that computer. Keylogging Software isn’t easily detected even if you are running current Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware programs.
So here’s the best way to make sure your computer isn’t infected with a Keylogger and you’re not being spied on:
- Do a complete reinstall of the Operating System. For most users this will be whatever version of Windows is installed on your computer. Reinstalling the OS and reformatting the hard drive in the process is the only way to ensure that malware or a Keylogger isn’t on your computer. If you don’t know how to do this find a Geek that does.
- Install proper Computer Security Software. Here’s some Free Computer Security Programs that I recommend.
- Change the passwords of any social networking and email accounts.
- Change the security questions associated with any email or social networking accounts.
Do these steps in the order listed because if someone has put a Keylogger on your computer changing your passwords first then reinstalling the OS means that the Keylogger was still in place when you changed the passwords. If you are looking for password manager software I suggest you use RoboForm or LastPass.
This might be obvious but once you have reinstalled your computer’s operating system you want to make sure that the person you suspect of spying on you doesn’t have access to that computer. It doesn’t take long for someone to install a Keylogger as they only need a few minutes on your computer to do this.
I hope this information helps both those who have a legitimate need to use web monitoring software as well as those who need to prevent themselves from being monitored without their knowledge.
You can SHARE THIS VIDEO with a friend using these buttons