Spyware - Plague of the future?

JanusX · April 29th, 2004, 00:58

I have had it up to here with companies that use, condone and otherwise traffic spyware/adware. To me this has to be the most annoying way for companies to recieve funding. Luckily for power-users like myself and probally most everyone on this forum, they can be fairly easily avoided. However for the general population, Adware should be labeled as a health hazard.
The part that really enrages me has nothing to do with the privacy concern. No, that has been hit on enough. The worst part about Adware is the "software" itself. (I use the term "software" lightly, I would definitely classify Adware in the same category as viruses, worms and trojans.) I have 4 computers in the house and the 2 "family" computers never seem to survive more that a couple weeks without beginning to get cluttered by this annoying crapware. However that is light end of it my home computers are easily fixed. The real problem affects casual users the most. I have seen a friends computer which I do regular maintance on virtually destroyed by this junk. BSOD, Half-Hour boot times, and crashes are daily occurances, all caused by the 100s of damn adware aps running at startup. (And I'm not exagerating) It took me a good part of the afternoon to clean off MOST of the junk.

The question I pose is what is your view on the nature of Adware? Is it a valid business practice? Should drive-by-downloads simply be an intristic part of your internet experience? Personally I think not. It turns looking up information on the web into a game of Dodgeball against popups.

__________________
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

Strider · April 29th, 2004, 01:11

well ofcourse spyware sucks... thats a given really. But there is no real internet police, hence nobody is gonna make it illegal for those companies... and nobody WANTS an internet police because of privacy and international law issues... ofcourse it sucks, but what are ya gonna do cept maybe boycot the sites

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Unicron · April 29th, 2004, 01:11

yeah for the love of ford I cant even search for some descent nudies on the net without my damned home page getting taken over by some ass farting rear admiral...

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It is the soldier, not the court, that has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protestor the freedom he abuses to burn that flag.

-Senator Zell Miller

Strider · April 29th, 2004, 01:15

well, thats why i use mozilla firebird... it blocks a lot of things automatically

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JanusX · April 29th, 2004, 01:18

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...7/tc_zd/125549

Ugg that this is disgusting, I hope it doesn't work as proposed!

__________________
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

Unicron · April 29th, 2004, 04:43

oh ford gather them all up and drag them into a dark alley for a good o'le fashioned whoopin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strider

well, thats why i use mozilla firebird... it blocks a lot of things automatically

I use MyIE2 it does the same but I still get nasty scripts that play havoc on my ie

__________________
It is the soldier, not the court, that has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protestor the freedom he abuses to burn that flag.

-Senator Zell Miller

Viper_Viper · April 29th, 2004, 06:13

i remeber when I first installed Spybot Search and Destory on the "family" computer. Ive been using it for awhile on mine, and when I first ran it on the family computer, there was almost 550+ diffrent spycrap on it. My dad was flipping out saying stuff like, "THEY HAVE ARE CREDID CARD NUMBERS" and "THEY KNOW WHERE WE LIVE".

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RZetlin · April 29th, 2004, 06:44

That's why ad-aware and spybot search and destroy are your friends.

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bahamut_2006 · April 30th, 2004, 01:21

Yeah, down at my school its a big mess. Especially on the comps in the ag class. Theirs a class of girls that go in there the period before I do, and every time they go somewhere they dont need to and I have to clean it up just to use the stupid things. It has also caused a bunch of missing shortcut complaints on startup (ye olde win 98) I have yet figured out a way to fix it, since it can be done by a reg cleaner, but i cant find one that is free and without restrictions.

April 29th, 2004, 00:58	#1
JanusX Nu... Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: A small cluttered desk Posts: 472	Spyware - Plague of the future? I have had it up to here with companies that use, condone and otherwise traffic spyware/adware. To me this has to be the most annoying way for companies to recieve funding. Luckily for power-users like myself and probally most everyone on this forum, they can be fairly easily avoided. However for the general population, Adware should be labeled as a health hazard. The part that really enrages me has nothing to do with the privacy concern. No, that has been hit on enough. The worst part about Adware is the "software" itself. (I use the term "software" lightly, I would definitely classify Adware in the same category as viruses, worms and trojans.) I have 4 computers in the house and the 2 "family" computers never seem to survive more that a couple weeks without beginning to get cluttered by this annoying crapware. However that is light end of it my home computers are easily fixed. The real problem affects casual users the most. I have seen a friends computer which I do regular maintance on virtually destroyed by this junk. BSOD, Half-Hour boot times, and crashes are daily occurances, all caused by the 100s of damn adware aps running at startup. (And I'm not exagerating) It took me a good part of the afternoon to clean off MOST of the junk. The question I pose is what is your view on the nature of Adware? Is it a valid business practice? Should drive-by-downloads simply be an intristic part of your internet experience? Personally I think not. It turns looking up information on the web into a game of Dodgeball against popups. __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

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April 29th, 2004, 01:11	#2
Strider Living Paradigm Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Toronto Posts: 10,223	well ofcourse spyware sucks... thats a given really. But there is no real internet police, hence nobody is gonna make it illegal for those companies... and nobody WANTS an internet police because of privacy and international law issues... ofcourse it sucks, but what are ya gonna do cept maybe boycot the sites __________________ My Deviant Art

April 29th, 2004, 01:11	#3
Unicron Git er done Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Raleigh, NC USA GO us! Posts: 2,829	yeah for the love of ford I cant even search for some descent nudies on the net without my damned home page getting taken over by some ass farting rear admiral... __________________ It is the soldier, not the court, that has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protestor the freedom he abuses to burn that flag. -Senator Zell Miller

April 29th, 2004, 01:15	#4
Strider Living Paradigm Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Toronto Posts: 10,223	well, thats why i use mozilla firebird... it blocks a lot of things automatically __________________ My Deviant Art

April 29th, 2004, 01:18	#5
JanusX Nu... Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: A small cluttered desk Posts: 472	http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...7/tc_zd/125549 Ugg that this is disgusting, I hope it doesn't work as proposed! __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

April 29th, 2004, 06:13	#7
Viper_Viper Experenced But New User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: United States of America Posts: 866	i remeber when I first installed Spybot Search and Destory on the "family" computer. Ive been using it for awhile on mine, and when I first ran it on the family computer, there was almost 550+ diffrent spycrap on it. My dad was flipping out saying stuff like, "THEY HAVE ARE CREDID CARD NUMBERS" and "THEY KNOW WHERE WE LIVE". __________________ MY PC!!!! Intel 2.44 ghz // Intel Desktop Board D845PEBT2 (533MHz FSB) // 1GIG DDR PC2700 (NEW) // 120 gig Western Digital HD // 8x DVD+/-R 4x DVD+/-RW Burner (NEW) // 48x15x48 CD-RW // ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb // USB 2.0 // Firewire (soon) // 6 Channel Digital Audio // Serial ATA // 3Dmark05 Demo - 2108

April 29th, 2004, 06:44	#8
RZetlin General of Tangerines Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Defending the Sea Posts: 3,923	That's why ad-aware and spybot search and destroy are your friends. __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ \| 2 GB RAM \| XFX Nvidia 6800 GS 256 MB XXX Edition \| Win XP Pro SP3 "Asu no Egao no Tame ni!" - So We Can Smile Tomorrow! Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/RZetlin

April 30th, 2004, 01:21	#9
bahamut_2006 Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: . Posts: 780	Yeah, down at my school its a big mess. Especially on the comps in the ag class. Theirs a class of girls that go in there the period before I do, and every time they go somewhere they dont need to and I have to clean it up just to use the stupid things. It has also caused a bunch of missing shortcut complaints on startup (ye olde win 98) I have yet figured out a way to fix it, since it can be done by a reg cleaner, but i cant find one that is free and without restrictions. __________________ Primary rig: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 (2.8 Ghz) Windsor core\|2 GB Corsair DDR 800 ram\|Abit AN52 Mobo\|512 MB ATI HD 3850\|Primary HD: 300 GB Seagate\| Secondary HD 300 GB Maxtor\|Antec Nine Hundred case w/550w Antec PSU\|19" Sceptre LCD\|Runnin on Windows XP Pro SP2