What use is Adaware?

caveman · 07-01-2005, 06:52

How dangerous are these data tracking cookies that we are so at pains to remove. I like most sensible internet users run the noral security software plus Spybot and Adaware.
Now after afresh format and install I ran these 3 times yesterday and each time found 10 - 12 of these cookies. No sooner deleted some are back again. I do not visit risky sites (well so I tell the wife) and ran these tests after a visit to various sites and found for example one visit to Ebay deposited 2 data mining/tracking cookies on my PC.
Are these things malicious, are we becoming paranoid, and if this has to be addressed how do we keep them off our PC's. It seems senseless keeping them off for 10% of the time. Is the problem that we run free versions and would the bought one actually stop them in the first place?

Millay · 07-01-2005, 07:22

The cookies themselves in my eyes are not a risk, the rick is caused in privacy terms, these cookies are used to track you as a user to see which sites you visit they can then build up profiles of people and work out what your into what you like where you visit, thus targetting adverts at groups of people into the same thing...

I personally dont really care.. best stop using your credit card and store poitns cards if you don't like this kind of thing happening..

caveman · 07-01-2005, 07:34

I'm not that paranoid about this thing, I'm just a bit confused as to what is the point of running Adaware, finding these cookies, deleting them believing they might be dangerous and for them or similar ones to appear within minutes.
If you are obsessed with this thing and you don't want to run Adaware every 10 minutes whilst your browsing, how else do you overcome this problem.
As I say I'm only interested - honest!

Paul K · 07-01-2005, 07:34

Cookies aren't a big worry to be honest, as Millay has said, but at the moment you are running adaware on a clean install so cookies will be about all you see, give it a while and the little background apps will start sneaking in and those are the problematic ones. I run adaware regualarly and have spybot running in the background yet the new MS beta spyware tool picked up stuff that spybot had been ignoring or missing for quite some time

While you have a clean system at the moment it's good to see you being proactive in keeping it that way

Oh and on the cookie front you can control what cookies are created but it may impede some sites from working correctly. Something to think about though

sherer · 07-01-2005, 10:34

one thing i would advise is moving to firefox or another browser.. alot of these cookies get installed on machines by backdoors and holes in IE if you use a diff browser you will find that you get less spyware and cookies installed.

Stuart · 07-01-2005, 10:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherer

one thing i would advise is moving to firefox or another browser.. alot of these cookies get installed on machines by backdoors and holes in IE if you use a diff browser you will find that you get less spyware and cookies installed.

Cookies don't get installed by backdoors, they are part of the HTML specification, and are used by many websites (good and bad),usually to store log in and/or configuration information. You can disable them in all browsers, but bear in mind a lot of websites (this one included) do not work properly if you disable cookies.

Adaware warns about cookies because companies like doubleclick CAN use them to track where you go on the Internet. AFAIK, cookies cannot be used for any really nasty purpose (although depending on the kind of sites you visit, just tracking where you go can be bad enough).

The advice about not using IE is good though. Spyware does attack IE more readily.

MetaWraith · 07-01-2005, 11:50

Whilst on the subject of cookies, i'd like to point out a useful freeware program (well i think so) to manage your cookies. Namely Cookie Monster from Ampsoft.
http://www.ampsoft.net/
It includes support for Firefox too

Stuart · 07-01-2005, 12:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetaWraith

Whilst on the subject of cookies, i'd like to point out a useful freeware program (well i think so) to manage your cookies. Namely Cookie Monster from Ampsoft.
http://www.ampsoft.net/
It includes support for Firefox too

& Opera.. Looks a good app..

meld51 · 07-01-2005, 14:28

Well this is all very good talk but none of it hits the point. It's a moral question of choice and the right to privacy. Tracking cookies and spyware in general are a breach of privacy. It is little different to having your phone line tapped....which is illegal.

I for one wish to know who I am giving info to. It is underhanded and downright nasty to sneak data from your PC....just like rumaging through your rubbish bin.

I know of no way to keep this stuff off of your PC though; does anyone else?

Oh well, rant over....

SMHarman · 07-01-2005, 14:41

Do you with hold CLID when you dial a number? I would say a cookie is more like CLID than having your phone tapped, they reciever of the cookie knows where it is coming from, but does not know who is using that PC. Just like you would know you were gettting a phone call from a phone line, could guess who is on the other end of the line, but don't know until you undertake some authentication.

Have you actually looked at the content of a cookie, it's pretty benign.

PHP Code:


			
bbstyleid

18

cableforum.co.uk/

1024

3692737666

29732666

2856916666

29659666

*

bbthreadedmode

linear

cableforum.co.uk/

1024

2835646666

29746666

888056666

29676666

*

caveman · 07-01-2005, 15:17

What a contrast of opinions. I have to say although having read all the hype about privacy and the need to eradicate spyware. I am beginning to think that it's b****y hard work to remember to run apps. like Adaware regularly enough for it to be worthwhile, after all what's the point in running it once a day if your contaminated soon after and are exposed for most of the day till you run it again.
Again I will stand corrected if my knowledge lacks something. Spyware is either dangerous or not, if it is we need to stop it coming in like a firewall not getting rid of it temporarily. What's the answer?

Stuart · 07-01-2005, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by meld51

Well this is all very good talk but none of it hits the point. It's a moral question of choice and the right to privacy. Tracking cookies and spyware in general are a breach of privacy. It is little different to having your phone line tapped....which is illegal.

I for one wish to know who I am giving info to. It is underhanded and downright nasty to sneak data from your PC....just like rumaging through your rubbish bin.

I know of no way to keep this stuff off of your PC though; does anyone else?

Oh well, rant over....

There are various products that can help protect against, or delete spyware. Three examples being Adaware, Spybot and SpywareGuard. Adaware can check for and delete common spyware, Spybot and SpywareGuard both stop any activex based spyware installing (they trick Internet Explorer into thinking the spyware is already installed, therefore it won't install it). Microsoft have just released an Anti spyware program too, but I have only just installed it although it seems quite thorough. Microsoft's program can check for spyware, and optionally stop programs altering certain parts of windows (such as adding themselves to the startup list).

Morally, spyware is wrong. Legally it is also often wrong, but any legal action may be difficult to persue as Spyware writers often fairly effectively hide their identities.

You can stop cookies being installed in the preferences/properties windows of most browsers. In Internet Explorer, go to "Tools", "Options" then "Privacy". There is a slider that has various levels of security on it. Usually it is set to "Medium", however if you click "Advanced", you can customise the privacy settings. You can also set the Privacy settings to High, then add any sites you want to use cookies to a list of sites you want to use cookies.

Bear in mind, however, that if you totally block cookies to all sites then a lot of sites (including cableforum) will not work properly. To give an example, if you stop Cableforum writing cookies, you have to log in each time you reply to a thread or (I think) view some threads. You also lose access to the User Control Panel..

Paul K · 07-01-2005, 15:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman

What a contrast of opinions. I have to say although having read all the hype about privacy and the need to eradicate spyware. I am beginning to think that it's b****y hard work to remember to run apps. like Adaware regularly enough for it to be worthwhile, after all what's the point in running it once a day if your contaminated soon after and are exposed for most of the day till you run it again.
Again I will stand corrected if my knowledge lacks something. Spyware is either dangerous or not, if it is we need to stop it coming in like a firewall not getting rid of it temporarily. What's the answer?

Install spybot S&D, enable the tea-time (I think that's the name) protection and it runs in the background and proactively protects you while warning about any changes to certain settings.

07-01-2005, 15:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman

What a contrast of opinions. I have to say although having read all the hype about privacy and the need to eradicate spyware. I am beginning to think that it's b****y hard work to remember to run apps. like Adaware regularly enough for it to be worthwhile, after all what's the point in running it once a day if your contaminated soon after and are exposed for most of the day till you run it again.
Again I will stand corrected if my knowledge lacks something. Spyware is either dangerous or not, if it is we need to stop it coming in like a firewall not getting rid of it temporarily. What's the answer?

I think it is like Paul said earlier, in the short term a few cookies are not going to do any harm, however, longer term there are other nasties that can creep in. It is for this reason, imo, that running programs like Adaware & Spybot is beneficial.

Regarding your point about being re-infected straight after a scan, one recourse is to use a resident spyware detector, such as SpySweeper, although normally these tend to be commercial rather than free for personal use. It does look like MS's beta is a resident detector, (I havn't tried it) but as has been said, there is no telling if it will cost money once the beta process is finished.

<edit> thanks Paul, I'd forgotten about the 'teatimer' function of Spybot (I switched it off when i got SpySweeper)

caveman · 07-01-2005, 15:28

I can't find the "tea time" to enable. I've been in the advanced status and looked everywhere - but then I am stupid!