This is topic OT/Spyware ,others watching your web habits in forum Old Archives at The Letterville BullBoard.


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Posted by Tim Barrow (Member # 576) on :
 
I know this is off topic,...but everyone here uses the web so here goes. I was watching the tv the other nite & they had an article on spy software that embedds itself into your sysytem with free downloads then reports your everymove on the net to web developers & ad agencies. Some types even report the type of hardware in your machine. The practice is so common that the FBI is starting investigations & hearings on the matter.All of this happens without your knowledge or consent, & if it does it's hidden in the fine print of those install legal notices that you have to click to accept to use the software!Just curious If anyone else out there has any more knowledge of these snooper programs?

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fly low...timi/NC
is,.....Tim Barrow
Barrow Art Signs
Winston-Salem,NC
http://members.xoom.com/Signz.1


 

Posted by Bob Darnell (Member # 27) on :
 
Ad Aware will scan your system and remove a lot of common spyware, but they keep coming up with new stuff. http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/index.html

Using a firewall like ZoneAlarm from www.zonelabs.com lets you allow or disallow software from using the internet as well.

The newest thing are web bugs, which I'm starting to read up on. It seems like some people view the Internet as one big demographic research tool. Whether they tell you or not...

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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
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Personal portfolio: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
Where I work: Excellent Signs and Displays Inc.
_______________________



 

Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
 
this one scares me.....the IRS can access your computer at any time as long as your hooked to a phone line....d/l your finance information....and you wont know it until they call you for an audit and then they tell you what you have in finance info...also had a friend in sarasota that ran a plumbing supply...he opened a warehouse in another town and put his inventory and P.O.S. program that he paid $4-5000 for....well he leaves the computer on at the other warehouse over the weekend, comes in monday morn...goes to open prog and its gone...only thing he gets is a message to call the program co. he did that...well the program co. went in over the weekend, found the program on a second computer since he only purchased one site license they deleted it from the other machine, fined him couple grand and then made him buy a 2nd site license......tell me big brother isnt alive and well....

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joe pribish-A SIGN MINT
2811 longleaf Dr.
pensacola, fl 32526
850-944-5060
BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND


 

Posted by Mike Pipes [in a cubicle] (Member # 1841) on :
 
Well, this is nothing new under the sun at all.

Bill Gates has implemented this into his Windows OS's for some time now and Intel even embeds this technology into their PIII CPU's.

Every machine has a specific ID number (Windows, MAC, Linux or other system) and this number allows tracking of such things.
Other programs like MS Office Suite, Outlook, Netscape, and virtually any other program out there can use this ID number in some way or another if the software programmers choose to utilize it.

This ID number is also how we webmasters can track the number of new visitors or repeat visitors to our websites. The servers log all this information and web statistics software can decipher it for those of us that dont have the time to read a thousand lines of stats every night.
Anytime someone logs onto any website, their computer's ID, geographic location, web browser info, IP address and a whole ton of other info is logged...

and it doesnt require any special spy software to do it..

As far as the spies that comes in with the free downloads, it's all in their license agreement that nobody ever reads.
There really isnt anything the FBI can do about it because the END USERS are AGREEING to a CONTRACT to have information about them collected for advertising purposes, whether they actually read the fine print or not.. it's in there.
Now, if during the installation process there was a note saying they would not use or sell your info for advertising purposes, then turn around and do just that, then there's a problem..

But as long as people hit that AGREE button on the license agreement without reading a word of it, they're just SOL.. Trust me, the advertisers are banking on people not reading that agreement, and most do not.

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Mike Pipes
-----trapped in a box with a computer and a slice of cheese-----
 

Posted by Sarah Clark (Member # 413) on :
 
NOthing new is true. Use a firewall. Get the free Zone Alarm program. Something else some may not know. The windows password protect can be bypassed by hitting esc and contrl. If you need to protect you computer use a third party password protection program.

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Posted by Debbie Delzell on :
 
Thanks Bob,

I downloaded the ad-aware and it found one on my system. I am now downloading the zonealarm. Thanks again for the links.

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Debbie Delzell
Columbus, Ohio

Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.
Johnson, Letter to William Drummond 1766


 

Posted by Larry Elliott (Member # 263) on :
 
Read the 'software agreement' for ZoneLabs!
It plainly states it is not free for businesses, only free for individuals with home computers not used for commercial purposes. You need to PURCHASE ZoneLabs Pro to use it in a business.

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Larry

Elliott Design
McLemoresville, Tn.

If you can't find the time to do it right,
where gonna find the time to do it over?

 

Posted by Sarah Clark (Member # 413) on :
 
I use zone on my home computer but the pro version doesnt cost very much to buy. There is also a good one called Black Ice Defender.

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