A question about web shield

[oaavav 0]

Hello,

I am a newbie, I am using Online Armor for the first time and I want to ask something about the web shield. Does it send any information about the pages I visit and my browsing history to emsisoft or anywhere else to verify that the sites I visit are safe, or it works with a completely different way ? I could not find any clear information about this,

Thank you

[catprincess 19]

Hi oaavav,

The Web Shield uses a whitelist of trusted domains, but this file is stored locally in the Online Armor folder rather than OA needing to check with Emsisoft's servers for every site you visit. It's also possible to disable the whitelist from Domains -> Options. The only occasion I know of that OA has to contact Emsisoft's servers for when visiting a site, is for DNS Checking and this only occurs for domains (for example, your banking sites) that you have manually set as Protected. I can't recall now, but the "Protected" option may not be available in OA Free.

You may also be interested in the following sections of the Webhelp that describe the Web Shield in more detail:

Key Features - Web Shield

Using Online Armor - Domains

Additionally, Emsisoft's privacy policy for Online Armor can be found here http://www.online-armor.com/privacy_policy.html

[oaavav 0]

Thank you very much for your answer

I have one more question...What is HIPS ? I find it being mentioned here.

[catprincess 19]

You're welcome

HIPS stands for "Host-based intrusion prevention system". In Online Armor, this refers to the Program Guard, Anti-Keylogger and Web Shield components. If these are disabled, OA runs as a firewall only without the HIPS features.