Data protection prevents sensitive data leaks when you are online.
Consider a simple example: you have created a data protection rule that protects your credit card number. If a spyware software somehow manages to install on your computer, it cannot send your credit card number via e-mail, instant messages or web pages. Moreover, your children cannot use it to buy online or reveal it to people they met on the Internet.
21.1. About data protection
Whether it is your e-mail or your credit card number, when they fall into the wrong hands such information may cause you damage: you may find yourself drowning in spam messages or you might be surprised to access an emptied account.
Based on the rules you create, Data Protection scans the web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic leaving your computer for specific character strings (for example, your credit card number). If there is a match, the respective web page, e-mail or instant message is blocked.
You can create rules to protect any piece of information you might consider personal or confidential, from your phone number or e-mail address to your bank account information. Multiuser support is provided so that users logging on to different Windows user accounts can configure and use their own rules. If your Windows account is an administrator account, the rules you create can be configured to also apply when other users of the computer are logged on to their Windows user accounts.
21.2. Configuring data protection
If you want to use data protection, follow these steps:
1. Open theBitdefender window.
2. Access the Privacy panel.
3. Click the Data Protection module.
4. Make sure data protection is enabled.
5. Create rules to protect your sensitive data. For more information, please refer to“Creating data protection rules” (p. 127).
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21.2.1. Creating data protection rules
To create a rule, click the Add rule button and follow the configuration wizard.
You can navigate through the wizard using the Next and Back buttons. To exit the wizard, click Cancel.
1. Describe Rule
You must set the following parameters:
●Rule Name - type the name of the rule in this edit field.
●Rule Type - choose the rule type (address, name, credit card, PIN, SSN, etc).
●Rule Data - type the data you want to protect in this edit field. For example, if you want to protect your credit card number, type all or part of it here.
Important
It is recommended to enter at least three characters in order to avoid mistakenly blocking messages and web pages. However, for extra safety, only enter partial data (for example, only a part of your credit card number).
●Rule Description - enter a short description of the rule in the edit field.
Since the blocked data (character string) is not displayed in plain text when accessing the rule, the description should help you easily identify it.
2. Configure rule settings
a. Select the type of traffic you want Bitdefender to scan.
●Scan Web (HTTP traffic) - scans the HTTP (web) traffic and blocks the outgoing data that matches the rule data.
●Scan e-mail (SMTP traffic) - scans the SMTP (mail) traffic and blocks the outgoing e-mail messages that contain the rule data.
You can choose to apply the rule only if the rule data matches whole words or if the rule data and the detected string case match.
b. Specify the users for which the rule applies.
●Only for me (current user) - the rule will apply only to your user account.
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●All users - the rule will apply to all Windows accounts.
●Limited user accounts - the rule will apply to you and all limited Windows accounts.
Click Finish. The rule will appear in the table.
From now on, any attempt to send the rule data through the selected protocols will fail. An entry will be displayed in theEventswindow indicating that Bitdefender has blocked identity specific content from being sent.
21.3. Managing rules
To manage the data protection rules:
1. Open theBitdefender window.
2. Access the Privacy panel.
3. Click the Data Protection module.
You can see the rules created so far listed in the table.
To delete a rule, select it and click the Remove rule button.
To edit a rule, select it and click the Edit rule button. A new window will appear. Here you can change the name, description and parameters of the rule (type, data and traffic). Click OK to save the changes.
21.4. Deleting files permanently
When you delete a file, it can no longer be accessed through normal means.
However, the file continues to be stored on the hard disk until it is overwritten when copying new files.
The Bitdefender File Shredder will help you permanently delete data by physically removing it from your hard disk.
You can quickly shred files or folders from your computer using the Windows contextual menu, by following these steps:
1. Right-click the file or folder you want to permanently delete.
2. Select Bitdefender > File Shredder in the context menu that appears.
3. A confirmation window will appear. Click Yes to start the File Shredder wizard.
4. Wait for Bitdefender to finish shredding the files.
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Alternatively, you can shred files from the Bitdefender interface.
1. Open theBitdefender window.
2. Access the Privacy panel.
3. Under the Data Protection module, select File Shredder.
4. Follow the File Shredder wizard:
a. Select file/folder
Add the files or folders you want to be permanently removed.
b. Shredding Files
Wait for Bitdefender to finish shredding the files.
c. Results
The results are displayed. Click Close to exit the wizard.
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