While I havent posted many reviews I have read a voluminous amount of all boards for a year or so now. I foolishly ventured into action without doing my research first and thankfully all was well.  What I havent seen talked about on here is what you folks would think constitutes a secure email address.  I have my own opinion but I will wait to hear what others say. THanks.

I use hotmail as my hobby email. There is gmail and others but they are all only as secure as you make them. Use a funky password, one that isn't used on you other email accounts. Also, never check "Remember Me on the Computer" or "Remember my Password" just in case your SO or whomever hits your link. After you get out of your mail, ALWAYS clear your history and cookies so no one can see where you have been.
So much to remember when hobbying....LOL
Hope this helps.

P.S. You can use a fake name too when signing up for the email account.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a secure email address. I have an anonymous yahoo account that I use for my hobby related activities. I don't share it with anyone in my civie life. Obviously, the SO doesn't know about it either. LOL
I do see many folks using other freebie email services for their hobby related activities. Someone who is determined and knowledgable can always trace email back to at least an IP if not to an individual, but I would think in most cases unless you are very prominent in the civie world you'd have little to worry about.

Just My .02

C_K

Yes, thanks. Of course I have already created these types of anonymous accounts. The latter part of your response is what I was driving towards. And its not so much about worry as it is about being as secure as you can be. I have gone so far as to research harddrive scrubbing programs that are file specific.

Why go that far unless you are wanted by the FBI? Divorce lawyers won't take your computer for evidence but the FBI will and can recover most everything with their equipment.
I had a guy come into my store once to have the data removed from his hard drive. I told him that it wasn't a problem unless the FBI wanted the information off of it. He insisted that he wanted it recoverable by no one. So I took his hard drive out, put it on the floor and crushed it with a hammer. He was happy, paid me and left....LOL

Mainly you want an account that, no one knows about, no one else shares, no one can get into easily or accidentally.  
Then you don't access it yourself when anyone else is there.
You don't access it from a work computer where the employer has the right to monitor their equipment.
Some of this is proceedure, not programming.  

Yes, clear cookies & temporary internet files when leaving...  
skb  

is one of those spy programs that can be used by a suspicious SO. Those programs can record everything you do on a computer and even your email. My friend used one to catch her husband having an affair (with a man). Do a google on 'computer spy program' and you will get all kinds of info on what they are capable of recording.

The major thing you have to decide in any security endeavor is simply this: are you worried about threats from the inside or from the outside? What I mean is whether you're worried about someone at home (SO or otherwise) becoming suspicious and having the knowledge to recover deleted-but-not-scrubbed traces from what you've been doing on your computer, or whether your concern is about someone seeing your email and being able to use it to pinpoint who you are.

The former is solved by being ever mindful about how you use your computer for the hobby. Common sense is first, and some of it has already been discussed in this thread. Secondly, I'd install a separate browser (if not one of the browsers that is launched and only used along with a flash drive). If you normally use IE, use Mozilla (Firefox) because one of the major traces that shows up in internet activity is what browser you are using. Also, with Firefox, you can tell it to kill all your cookies, history, etc. upon close. ccleaner seems to be a safe and effective way to clear various trace-forming properties in windows. Run it before you close your browser and you can even set it to do an NSA (or better) delete. (it'll even secure wipe your recycling bin, which is a plus)

For the latter, email headers are key to tracing emails. You can research this yourself if you're curious, but these usually contain, among other things, the IP address you were sending from, often  some sort of route information about where the email came from (this is why things that come out as from microsoft but weren't sent from there can get filtered as spam), and your name as defined by your email provider. Most of this isn't a concern to you as long as you don't set up an email address under your own name and use an email provider that's different than what you normally use. The most important thing you can do is mask your IP address. This is done by proxy-like services that'll make it look like your browsing from another IP. If you're curious about this, I'd recommend doing your own research about how best to do this.

However, please note that, at least from what I understand from browsing the Legal board, no one is going to go through the trouble of actually doing a trace or a hard drive restoration on you for the hobby (a misdemeanor). So, some basic common sense that makes it hard for LE to immediately tell who you are will go most of the way towards securing yourself. You can always go overboard if you're computer savoy, but that's where the "paranoia" aspect of things comes in.

(just a newbie, but a computer geek)

Don't forget that there's also hardware key loggers. These are the same as software key loggers (things that literally store and save everything you type; as distinguished from spy programs that actually record EVERYTHING you do in windows) but hardware. Basically, do a google search for "spy gear" and any one of those websites should either have a section on it or it'll be listed under software. The hardware ones work by basically plugging in between your keyboard's port (USB or PS2) but before the keyboard. They have some memory (depends on model) and will literally record EVERY key stroke. Then, the person spying would have a special code (keyboard combination) that they would type in with the keyboard and it would dump that information to your screen (ie: notepad).

Again, depends on how paranoid you are. But, if you're concerned about an SO becoming concerned or someone that has access to your computer in any shared scenario (even if it's not hobby related) then it's in your best interest to become familiar with your hardware so that you can do a periodic check to make sure there isn't anything "extra" running. You may be able to do the same thing with the software spy programs, but those are often tricky and are good at hiding themselves as being listed as something inconspicuous.

I don't mean to scare anyone as these things are rare, but commons sense goes a long way. If you have as shared computer just understand that you should be more discreet than if you have a PC all to yourself that no one would reasonably ever touch or have access to.

(just a newbie, but a computer geek)

I think the biggest thing is to be & act normal, don't leave ANY crumbs around.  A few crunbs & they get curious & follow the trail.  Do NOT be sloppy.  Ever.
skb

(1) Divorce lawyers can ask for information from your computer, either the whole thing or specific things (like specific e-mails). This doesn't mean that they always do, but they can and will if their client thinks there's a good reason and will pay for it.

(2) Crushing a hard drive with a hammer will not make the data unrecoverable, unless you can completely shatter the metal. You need to use strong magnets to electronically mangle the data.

Also, yes, the FBI has the technology to recover this type of data, but in some cases, if they want you bad enough, locals and staties can get to it, too.

As I've posted a couple times before, per OneGent1's comment about IPs in e-mail headers, Gmail does NOT send IP information in the header, whereas Hotmail and Yahoo DO.

But this is also to generally confirm OneGent1's apropos comment that LE following electronic data to catch misdimeanors is a little far-reaching, unless you're important or there's some other suspicious activity going on, a la Spitzer, but that knowledge might be completely out of your control.

t/c