Spyware - It's Time to Take Control!

[Wiggin]

Everyone is aware of the current attention being applied to SPAM, a cancer that continues to spread in the world of email. But less folks know about Spyware. Put simply, a LARGE number of companies, ad agencies, and Web sites place tracking applications (usually in the form of a cookie) on your computer, which then track your www activity, and report back to the "mother ship" without you ever knowing about it. It's legal, and it's wrong!! :evil:

But, there are ways to take control of the situation, and the best application I have found to tackle the problem is Ad-aware 6.0 by Lavasoft. This little baby is fast becoming one of the MOST important protection applications that everyone must have. If you are at all concerned about datamining, aggressive advertising, parasites, scumware, keyloggers, trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components, give this application a look.

The best part... it is FREE! Yup, Lavasoft believes Spyware is a problem for all of us, and offers their base product for free use by consumers. I strongly suggest you dl the app, and scan your disk... you will be AMAZED at what you will find. You can find the application, and info about their Priced apps here (http://www.lavasoft.de/). The free version is passive, i.e. you need to run it yourself. The non-free versions provide additional features and proactive capability which will do the "watching and cleaning" for you. Either way, give it a look. :way to go:

This is a little SW Gift for all of you PPCT readers as a way for me to say Merry Christmas to you and thank you for the valuable feedback, tips, and laughs which I find here each and every time I stop by.

Happy Holidays and a Very Happy PPC New Year
:D :werenotworthy: :)

[DrtyBlvd]

Without wishing to be ungrateful :) , Why bother? Can you elaborate to a greater degree on why this should concern people?

[Wiggin]

If you are at all concerned about datamining...
db, perhaps you don't fit in this category. If so, than consider the gift a Christmas Fruitcake and quietly place it where it belongs... in someone ELSE's hands! :lol:

[DrtyBlvd]

On the contrary - were it a Fruitcake it would be staying right here with me thank you very much :D

Seriously though - Why would "datamining" bother people? I know what I think, I'd like to hear your thoughts though? :)

[Janak Parekh]

Re data mining: You don't really know what they're collecting. What if they're collecting information on the kinds of sites you visit, or programs and data you download, or even passwords you enter? Most of them have "privacy policies", but there's no easy way to tell that they're following them.

Anyway, practically-speaking, such "spyware" are nuisances in that they trigger ad popups (even if you have blockers) on your machine -- and many of them are known to reduce system stability.

--janak

[DrtyBlvd]

Re data mining: You don't really know what they're collecting. What if they're collecting information on the kinds of sites you visit, or programs and data you download, or even passwords you enter?

--janak

Passwords for what? Say, like PPCT logon detail? Anything :!: :?:

Or would it have to relate to the site in question re the 'item' (Cookie?):?:

[Janak Parekh]

Or would it have to relate to the site in question re the 'item' (Cookie?):?:
While Wiggin specifically cites cookies, this is by far not the only form of spyware, and I think cookies are the smallest part of it. The most malicious are those that are bundled with free downloads, such as Gator (recently renamed Claria (www.claria.com), since Gator has built such a bad name). These run full Win32 executables on your machine on startup. Many of them "hide" themselves to make themselves difficult to uninstall.

--janak

[DrtyBlvd]

Ahhhh. Do they manage to "do their thang" through firewalls and 'defences' that people might have?

(Thank you for your responses, as ever, btw :) )

[JackTheTripper]

I've never had a need for anything like this until about a week ago. I asked a friend and he recommended SpyBot. (http://www.safer-networking.org/) It worked wonders. Even let me "Imunize" against the spyware so it can't install on my system again. :)

[dh]

I've been using SpyBot for a while and am very happy with it. Getting rid of junk and keeping it away can only be good.

[Mark Kenepp]

I have had some spyware (or would it be adware) bog down the system, especially if it is buggy. I have had a few systems with odd problems, like running slow and unresponsive at times accompanied with random pop-up adds (even when there was no user initiated connection to the Internet). SpyBot fixed the problems in all cases.

I personally have had spyware hijack my Internet Explorer. :evil:

Depending on which sites you go to will determine how bad it can get, I guess it could also depend on advertisements found on a page.

[GoldKey]

Another thumbs up for spybot! It is FREE too.

[Janak Parekh]

Ahhhh. Do they manage to "do their thang" through firewalls and 'defences' that people might have?
Sure. Firewalls don't prevent you from surfing the net and downloading free software/ActiveX controls/running attachments/etc.

Firewalls are one line of defense, but they don't cover everything.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

I use Spybot and Adaware; nice to be double protected. I accidentally clicked Yes instead of No to one of those download permission windows on thespark.com once.....I think the 2 programs found a total of 22 separate pieces of spyware from that one click, plus it added a ton of links to my favorites, and a couple dozen icons to my desktop and start menu, and it re-directed my home page in IE. I'd just run the anti-spyware programs the day before so I know all the stuff that it found was directly from that one missed click. I'm never visiting that site again, but mistakes are easy to make, so I'm glad there are (free!) programs to protect my system from my clumsy fingers!

[Janak Parekh]

That's one of the interesting benefits of Mozilla/Firebird. Since they don't support ActiveX controls, there's no auto-download of much of anything. On the other hand, ActiveX controls are useful for certain applications.

--janak

[Pat Logsdon]

The most malicious are those that are bundled with free downloads, such as Gator (recently renamed Claria (www.claria.com), since Gator has built such a bad name).
Interesting - my proxy here at work blocks the claria site because it falls under the category of "computer crime". 8O

I don't worry too much about spyware because I use Opera exclusively. 8)