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SPYWARE FROM TECH REPUBLIC?

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by boxwood 1 view

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[I CAN'T MOVE MY HANDS WELL TO TYPE-PLEASE FORGIVE THE ALL CAPS]
I WANT TO KNOW WHY MY EARTHLINK "SPY AUDIT" COMES UP WITH TECH REP AS HAVING SPYWARE ON MY LAPTOP. HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

DEFINITION ON SPY AUDIT:
"Adware Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that are generated by a web server and stored on your computer for future access. Cookies were originally implemented to allow you to customize your web experience. However, some web sites now issue adware cookies, which allow multiple web sites to store and access cookies that may contain personal information (including surfing habits, user names and passwords, areas of interest, etc.), and then simultaneously share the information it contains with other web sites. This sharing of information allows marketing firms to create a user profile based on your personal information and sell it to other firms.

Adware cookies are installed and accessed without your knowledge or consent.

Adware Cookie

Atdmt (Atlas DMT)
DoubleClick Cookie
TechTarget.com Cookie "

SO IS TECH REP COLLECTING INFO AND PASSING IT TO OTHER COMPANIES, ETC?

5 replies

by maxwell edison

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TechRepublic is owned by CNET, and I can assure you that they're not alone in planting cookies so they can bombard you with target advertising. (Yahoo and others do it as well.)

What these cookies do is record your browsing habits and hit you with advertising accordingly. If you do a lot of computer related browsing, you'll get hit with computer ads. If you do a lot of automobile browsing, you'll get hit with car ads; if you do a lot of hootchie-kootchie browsing, you'll get hit with ads you probably don't want your kids to see. But this is, technically, adware, not spyware, although I guess it could be considered a form of spyware.

The difference between adware and spyware: Any software application in which advertising banners are displayed while the program is running is called Adware. And any software that sends data back to a third party without asking the user is Spyware.

Adware is probably the most harmless kind of spyware, buy I suppose it's spyware nonetheless.

Do they sell the information? I've not heard of target advertising information being sold or shared, as it's a process that's directed by the cookies planted on your computer. But I can't say for sure, one way or the other. Someone else might know for sure.

Another reason for TechRepublic's planting of cookies is to facilitate an automatic log-in process. When you log in for the first time, you're asked if you want TechRepublic to remember your e-mail and password for automatic log-in. If you click the yes box, a cookie will be planted to record that information. This is true for other types of log-ins as well.

As a side note, I suppose I don't object to this adware) too much, and I consider it a trade-off for the free services the Web site provides. After all, they're a business and have to turn a profit. I'd rather have the advertisers pay their profit instead of subscription fees paid by me.

To search your system for various spyware programs, consider some of these tools:

http://www.spychecker.com/software/antispy.html

or tiny url

http://tinyurl.com/3yca2

There are a variety to choose from, most have free downloads available, and some may detect things differently than others.

Another possible article of interest:

http://www.silicon-press.com/briefs/brief.cookiead/brief.pdf

or tiny url

http://tinyurl.com/22x3l

by boxwood

I AGREE WITH THIS AS THE POINT OF HAVING ADS THAT WILL BE TO A PERSONS LIKING; IF ONE HAS TO HAVE THE ADS, THEN BETTER THE ADS THAT ONE LIKES AND NOT THE ADS OF THE STRANGE SITES.
YET, THIS IS A SUBJECT UNDER MUCH DISCUSSION TODAY-PRIVACY. I WAS ASKED THIS ON A POLL RECENTLY IF I FELT THAT IT WAS OKAY FOR COMPANIES TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE SO THAT THEY COULD BETTER KNOW WHAT A PERSON WANTS/ LIKES
OR, IF THIS WAS JUST TOO MUCH INFORMATION TO LET UNKNOWN PEOPLE HAVE, AS AN INVASION OF PRIVACY.
I WOULD PREFER TO GET ADS, EMAILS JUST IN ITEMS THAT I LIKE TO VIEW.
[THIS WOULD BE NICE FOR SPAMMERS, BTW, THAT THEY SEND THEIR ADS, ETC TO ONLY THOSE WHO GO TO THESE KINDS OF SITES-HAHA. IF THEY WERE HONEST ENOUGH TO DO THAT....]
BUT I ALSO AGREE WITH THE PRIVACY ISSUE- HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH FOR THE PUBLIC TO KNOW? WHO IS GETTING THIS INFO AND WHAT ELSE ARE THEY DOING WITH IT? IT FOLLOWS, THEN, IF A TRUSTWORTHY FIRM, SUCH AS CNET, GETS MY INFO AND THE ADS ARE SHOWN THAT I LIKE, THAT IS FINE. IF THE COMPANIES THAT RUN THE ADS ALSO FILL SOME OTHER FIRM'S NEED FOR THIS INFO, WHICH MAY NOT BE A PROPER FIRM, THEN MY INFO GOES SOMEWHERE THAT I WOULDN'T AGREE WITH HAVING THIS.
THE SUBJECT THEN GOES TO "CONTROLLING THE PRIVACY" OF THE USER AND THERE IS NO CONTROL BY ME TO WHERE THE INFO GOES.
IT IS ALL A MATTER OF TRUST IN THE PRIVACY POLICY THAT WE CAN VIEW ON A FIRM'S WEBSITE- WHERE THEY SAY THAT THEY WILL NOT SELL, GIVE, OR WHATEVER MY INFORMATION TO ANY PARTY... ETC.

by guruofdos

1. Run AdAware6.0 Personal to clean ALL tracking cookies from your system.
2. Launch IE with TR set as the homepage.
3. Browse a couple of articles and a discussion or two.
4. Close IE and run AdAware again...

Between 8 and 12 tracking or advertising related cookies are now sat on the system!!!

Run the last IE session history through Cookie Cruncher or another cookie analysis program, and just see how unsecure TR actually is! One cookie does actually transmit personal data to another site!

by boxwood

i went to the privacy stmt of cnet and , as with many places, they are not resp;onsible for third party actions ( click on privacy at the bottom of this page). when i went to clairol for my hair color, i thought that i'd look at the privacy stmt for a large corp, which is proctor and gamble. they also have a somilar stmt but have this info in a pop-up- i am cut /paste this here-
please note the very last sentence. also check the tr reply at the netsky virus discussion
COOKIES

Cookies help us in many ways to make your visit to our website more enjoyable and meaningful to you. Cookies are text information files that your web browser places on your computer when you visit a website. Procter & Gamble may use such "cookie" technology to obtain non-personal information from you as an online visitor. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to accept them or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Procter & Gamble may also use so-called "web beacons" to access the information contained in its cookies within the network of the Procter & Gamble websites and interactive banner ads. For more information click here.
COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS

When you view one of our websites or interactive advertisements, we may collect some non personal information about you. The collection of this non personal information is done either through the "cookie" technology or with "web beacons" (also called "single-pixel gif" or "web pings"). Neither our cookies nor web beacons nor web log information collects any personal information.

a) Cookies
When you view one of our websites or interactive advertisements, we may store some information on your computer. This information will be in the form of a small text file, also called a "cookie". Cookies help us in many ways to make your visit to our website more enjoyable and meaningful to you. For example, cookies avoid you having to log in every time you come back to one of our websites. They also allow us to tailor a website or advertisement to better match your interests and preferences. Most browsers can be configured not to accept cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.

b) Web Beacons
Web beacons are site instrumentation that help us to determine, for instance, whether a page has been viewed or not and, if so, how many times. When you ask us to send you information on a promotion or a newsletter, we may use web beacons to establish how many of the emails are actually opened. In general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page, including an ad banner, can act as a web beacon.
Third party advertising networks that serve ads onto any Procter & Gamble web site may use cookies and/or web beacons in their advertisements. Procter & Gamble retains no control over such third party cookies and/or web beacons and does not have access to the information related to third party cookies and/or web beacons.

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