System Mechanic Ultimate Defense users can access the full version of the online privacy feature Privacy Guardian by clicking the Privacy Guardian eyeball icon at the top of the homescreen.
Privacy Guardian is a feature in System Mechanic Ultimate Defense you also install as a web browser extension. (Privacy Guardian can also be purchased separately.)
Privacy Guardian blocks access to your sensitive online data, device info and habits whenever you use the internet. The desktop app features a dashboard that lets you manage all of your Privacy Guardian settings, view attempts to track you and more, all in one convenient place.
Privacy Guardian thwarts efforts to gain vast amounts of your personal information based on your search history, shopping habits and more.
Privacy Guardian focuses on fingerprint-based tracking by studying the behaviors of known fingerprinting scripts and scrambling the data they rely upon to gain sensitive information about you.
The tracking Privacy Guardian detects is independent of whether there are ads with tracking cookies on a site. Privacy Guardian users are alerted every time there is an attempt to track them online, regardless of whether an ad is visible. What’s more, simply blocking cookies can interfere with the loading of legitimate content.
Many web browsers—including Chrome, Firefox and Opera—require the use of extensions (aka “add-ons”) for certain types of software to be compatible. Browser extensions add features to your web browser, in this case, the online privacy tool Privacy Guardian.
Because Privacy Guardian is a browser-based anti- tracking application that protects your online activities from spying eyes while you are using the internet, adding the extension to your browser is the only way Privacy Guardian will be able to protect your browsing from tracking attempts. (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Edge browsers do not require you to enable extensions.)
Before installing the Privacy Guardian browser extensions, first make sure that your web browsers are fully up-to-date. Second, the latest Windows updates should be fully applied.
Even if you typically use just one web browser, it is recommended that you enable online privacy protection for each of your browsers. If you have not already been prompted by Privacy Guardian and therefore done so, to enable privacy protection for your browsers:
From the Privacy Guardian Dashboard, click Browsers.
Here you will see a list of browsers available for privacy protection.
Choose a browser from the list, and click Enable.
Follow the onscreen steps as Privacy Guardian walks you through adding the browser extension for the browser.
Moving down the list of available browsers, click Enable and follow the onscreen instructions for each subsequent browser.
First, customize your data-clearance settings:
From the Privacy Guardian Dashboard, click Cookie Clearing Schedule.
On the left side of the panel, click Settings.
This opens the Privacy Guardian Settings menu. It is here that you should select which cookies and browsing data you want Privacy Guardian to always clear when you perform a manual data-clearance or schedule an automatic one.
Make your selections and click Exit.
Manually clearing your browsing data and cookies:
Back in the Automatic Privacy Cleaning panel, under the Browsing data column, click Clear data next to the browser(s) you wish to clear.
After you have customized your data-clearance settings (see above):
In the Automatic Privacy Cleaning panel (accessed from the Privacy Guardian Dashboard > Cookie Clearing Schedule) under the Automatic cleaning column, click the slider button next to the browser(s) you wish to automatically clear.
Your data will automatically clear each time ActiveCare runs.
Adjust how frequently ActiveCare runs from within the System Mechanic red menu bar by clicking Settings > ActiveCare > Frequency, and selecting a frequency from the dropdown menu.
Some cookies are useful, e.g., by keeping you logged in to trusted websites or retaining your shopping cart orders. To whitelist certain websites from your scheduled or manual cookie clearance, follow these steps:
From the Privacy Guardian Dashboard, click Cookie Clearing Schedule.
On the right side of the window, click the black (Dark mode) Add or remove websites from whitelist button.
You may Choose from popular options if you are unsure which websites to whitelist.
Click within the box that says Enter URL to type a specific website you have in mind.
Review your whitelisted sites in the box below this entry field.
Click Remove to re-enable cookie clearance for any given website in this list.
When you are finished making changes, click Done.