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Author Topic: Spyware Study  (Read 4570 times)

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Offline FreewheelinFrank

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Spyware Study
« on: February 10, 2006, 02:48:15 PM »
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CharleyO

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2006, 09:07:07 PM »
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Well, it's a little flawed since they only used one spyware removal tool. We all know another will find what one might miss. At least 3 should have been used. So, I would say that the situation is a little worse than is indicated.    :(

Yeah, I have been doing spyware checks after using CNET's download.com for a couple of years now. Another one that should aways be checked is if you download anything from TryMedia ... many demos downloaded are through this service and it uses/installs spyware.    >:(


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Offline bob3160

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2006, 05:45:44 AM »
I've been using download.com for years and never picked up any spyware from there.
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justin1278

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2006, 04:03:40 PM »
Hello,

This is under debate but Download.com supports wildtangent downloads so if you download that from them you could end up with spyware.
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Offline bob3160

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2006, 04:28:21 PM »
Quote from: Justin1278 on February 13, 2006, 04:03:40 PM
Hello,

This is under debate but Download.com supports wildtangent downloads so if you download that from them you could end up with spyware.
Wild Tangent is a video game software company specializing in online games. It has even made a partnership with AOL to include itself as part of the AOL Instant Messenger for their AIM games section. The WildTangent Web Driver is their technology that allows you to play 3D games over the Internet. Although its not technically considered spyware it does have built in components to update itself and gather information about the computer system including:

Operating System Version
CPU Type and Speed
Memory Amount
Video Card type and Driver Version
Sound Card type and Driver Version
DirectX Version
Location that the Web Driver was installed from

So why isn't AOL on that list since they also support Wildtangent???

The only fault I see in wildtangent is the fact that they gather some harmless info to determine
if your system is compatible with the games you intend to play.
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Offline Abraxas

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2006, 05:17:06 PM »
I've used Download.com also for years, and the affiliate Cnet, and was surprised to hear it rated lowly as a security risk .A lot of downloads from Microsoft , utilities etc. re-direct to it as a download site.
Cnet have free online courses, I did one on Anti-Spyware last year , and asked the "teacher" why am I getting all these tracking cookies when I login to do this course (?) . He replied they were harmless advertising collection data . Really quite funny, as we were learning all about Spyware, and they were spying on us  ;D , . Good Free Courses at Cnet actually .
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CharleyO

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2006, 05:48:57 PM »
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Yeah, I've posted on the Cnet forum before about their use of tracking cookies and they use (or ... use to use) some of the most invasive of that type.    :( 

You can't even trust the sites that are suppose to be trustworthy.
This led me to use a more secure cookie blocking policy!    :)


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Offline bob3160

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2006, 06:07:37 PM »
Virtually every site I know of used cookies including this forum.  ;D
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CharleyO

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Re: Spyware Study
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2006, 06:24:41 PM »
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That's true, Bob ... but Cnet was using the worse kind at one time. Also, this is from the link below ......

"(For full disclosure purposes, the University of Washington study specifically mentions CNET Download.com, citing a tremendous decrease in spyware downloads between May and October 2005, a period when Download.com announced that it would no longer host freeware or shareware known to contain spyware.)"

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-3513_16-6436607-1.html?tag=nl.e622


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