PC help: Who watches the watchmen?

Q Being concerned about security on my computer, I run AVG, Windows Defender, Ad-Ware SE Personal, Spyware Terminator, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ghostsurf and Anonymizer.

How do I know that they actually perform as expected and are keeping me safe, not stealing my personal information?
Geoffrey Evans

A In some respects there is no easy answer to this question as the only way to be truly sure would be to look at the programming code behind every program on your computer.

This is an impossible feat even if this information was made available by the software companies.

The practical answer is that there are lots of watchmen, all watching each other. If one security company discovered and proved that another had been stealing information they might win more customers.

So the presence of other companies keeps them all honest. The other help is in the form of enthusiast programmers who tinker with software to find out how it works. If they found any problems they would quickly report their findings. We keep a close eye on both of these sources and would reveal any wrongdoing immediately.