Tutorial 2: Be Responsible for Your Privacy

You may find yourself asking: "How can I know when I receive a new message from my counsellor? Do I have to login to PrivacEmail every day?"

No, you don't. PrivacEmail can automatically send a message to your regular e-mail address whenever you receive mail in your PrivacEmail account.

To set this up, login to PrivacEmail.com and click the Preferences tab. Then scroll down the Preferences settings until you see the "Email Notification" section and follow the instructions. It is important to protect your confidentiality even in notification messages. So do NOT check the box that says:

I invite you to explore the other Preferences options as well. For example, if you have a slow modem connection, you may want to select the "Use fewer images" checkbox to speed up the PrivacEmail system.

A Private Place or Time

I hope you can either make sure your computer is in a private place, or that you can find private time for reading and writing your TherapEmail. Otherwise, someone may be able to look over your shoulder and read your private messages. Security on the Internet is useless if people can look over your shoulder.

Web Browser Privacy

Your web browser⁽¹⁾ automatically records Web pages, graphics, and other files you've visited. These records are called the cache and history⁽²⁾ . Left alone, these records provide a roadmap of your surfing activities to the next person (your boss, your child, your spouse) who uses the computer and knows where to look. Please take these steps to protect your privacy after each visit to Therapy Online's virtual counselling centre:

To delete records of your Web browsing activity:

If you are using any version of Netscape Communicator^®:

From your browser menu select: Edit
From the Edit drop-down menu select: Preferences
Under the "Category" list (on left side of the Preferences window), open the sub-menu for "Advanced" by clicking on the + symbol
From the Advanced sub-menu, click on the word: Cache
From the Cache window select: Clear Memory Cache & Clear Disk Cache; then select the OK button at the bottom of the Cache window.
To clear the History list, select the Navigator branch, and then click the Clear History and Clear Location Bar buttons.

If you are using any version of Microsoft Internet Explorer:

From your browser menu select: Tools
From the Tools drop-down menu select: Internet Options
From the Internet Options window select: General
From the General folder, look for the Temporary Internet Files section near the middle of the window, click on the Delete Files button; a new window appears with the question "Delete all files in Temporary Internet Files Folder?", click on OK.
You should also delete your "History" folder, which records the names of sites you have recently visited. From the General folder, look for the History section near the bottom of the window, click on the Clear History button; a new window appears with the question "Are you sure you want Windows to delete your history of visited web sites?", click Yes. Then select the OK button at the bottom of the Internet Options window.

As an added security measure in any version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, you may decide to set your browser defaults as follows:

From your browser menu select: Tools
From the Tools drop-down menu select: Internet Options
From the Internet Options window select: Advanced
From the Advanced scroll-down window, look for the Security section title. From this section, you may decide you prefer to select the following option:
- Delete saved pages when browser closed
Then click on OK at bottom of window.

For users of other browsers, please refer to your browser's documentation on memory/disk caching.

⁽¹⁾ Your web browser is the software that takes you to www locations on the Internet. The most common browsers are Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Communicator.

⁽²⁾ Cache is an area in the memory or disk where information on pages retrieved from the network may be stored. When you exit the browser application, memory cache is automatically emptied. If disk cache has been created, it is maintained. History records the locations of the web sites you have recently visited.