Situation:
You want to know how to configure the privacy control feature of Norton Internet Security (NIS) or Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) to protect your confidential information.

Solution:
The privacy control feature of NIS and NPF protects your confidential information from being leaked out or sent across the Internet without your permission. You can choose from three levels of protection, or create your own custom level. For this feature to work, you must enter any information that you wish to remain private, such as your name, credit card number, address, and phone number. NIS will then inspect inbound and outbound traffic, alerting you before sending this information out, thus giving you the option of who sees your private information. You may set up profiles for each NIS or NPF user. This allows each user to enter different confidential information to be protected and different privacy control levels.

To enter your confidential information
You must enter any confidential information that you want protected if you want to use this feature of NIS and NPF.

1. Open NIS.
2. Double-click Privacy Control.
3. Click Private Information > Add.
4. Choose an information category, and enter the appropriate information into the "Description" and "Information to protect" text boxes.
5. If you want to protect this information from being sent through the Web, ensure that the Web checkbox is checked.
6. If you want to protect this information from being sent through instant messaging, ensure that the Instant messaging checkbox is checked.
7. If you want to protect this information from being sent through email, ensure that the E-mail checkbox is checked.
8. Click OK.

To remove confidential information

1. Open NIS.
2. Double-click Privacy Control.
3. Click Private Information.
4. Select the entry you wish to remove.
5. Click Remove > Yes.

To modify your confidential information

1. Open NIS.
2. Double-click Privacy Control.
3. Click Private Information.
4. Choose the entry that you wish to modify.
5. Click Modify.
6. If you wish to modify the category, use the Category drop-down box to select a new category.
7. Modify the appropriate information into the "Description" and "Information to protect" text boxes.
8. If you want to protect this information from being sent through the Web, ensure that the Web checkbox is checked.
9. If you want to protect this information from being sent through instant messaging, ensure that the Instant messaging checkbox is checked.
10. If you want to protect this information from being sent through email, ensure that the E-mail checkbox is checked.
11. Click OK.

To change privacy control levels
The privacy control levels define how NIS and NPF behave. Higher settings will block more kinds of information by default. Lower settings let more information pass and warn you when sending confidential information across the Internet. You can define a custom level if you want more control over this behavior.

1. Open NIS.
2. Double-click Privacy Control.
3. Click Private Information.
4. Select the user for whom you are setting the privacy control level.
5. Move the slider to high, medium, or low in order to select a predefined privacy control level, or create a custom level.
6. Click OK.

To create a custom privacy control level

1. Open NIS.
2. Double-click Privacy Control.
3. Click Private Information.
4. Click Custom Level.
5. Select the desired level of blocking in the Private information and Cookie blocking drop-down boxes. Many sites use cookies to store user information when you logon, and will not function properly if you block cookies. If you wish to control what cookies are set by your browser, set Cookie blocking to medium, or low to allow all cookies to be set.
6. Uncheck "Enable browser privacy" if you wish to allow information about your Web browser to be visible to Web sites.
7. Uncheck "Enable secure connections (https)" if you do not want to allow secure (encrypted) Web connections. It is a good idea to leave this box checked, as many sites that use logon information will also use secure connections.

Document ID: 2003120308455736
Last Modified: 02/17/2005
Date Created: 12/03/2003
Operating System(s): Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional Edition
Product(s): Norton Internet Security 2003 6.0, Norton Internet Security 2004 7.0, Norton Internet Security Professional 2003, Norton Internet Security Professional 2004 7.0, Norton Personal Firewall 2003 6.0, Norton Personal Firewall 2004 7.0