Ad-aware cleaned out 85 snoopers from my hard drive, including Gator and Bearshare that I didn't even know were there. Most of the spyware was connected to five different companies. Wish I had a way of reversing energy to their computers and giving them a little taste of vengence.

well Peter. bud whipple had 85 snoopers. You starting to wonder about your pc yet? hehe

Find 108!! on my primary HD and an older one I used for a slave.
Amazing.
DonM

Okay, Bud found over 50 snoopers, and Don found over 100 of them. I'd like to see more of you run ad-aware and report back here how many snoopers you found on your pc. here is the link to get it. There is a free update for it as well, I just noticed. And the update is rated at 100 % by users. I am going to install update for it and run ad-aware scan of my pc again.
This is something that blows people away. To find a bunch of spy ware on their pc they didn't have a clue even existed.

Opps I forgot the link for ad-aware. here it is. http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=ad-aware&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go%21+
The first 2 listed are the ones to get. Adaware and the update.
Dont forget to report back how many snoopers you found on your pc. If you found any that is. I am sure most will find some.
Tony

Funny, but the only one found here at my PC after deep scan of both HD directories is a cookie from Doubleclick, and that one is very common, and it "only" keep tracks at adverts as far as I know, and according to some PC magazines, it's not a very bad one.....
GJ

Yeah, double click is not very major. Quite minor actually.I had a few of those in the last year. Didn't even notice my pc running slower with it. gaming sites use doubleclick. yahoo has used them as well. no matter how mild they are,,,, They are like a fly bothering me, I can't help but want to zap em. and if i get them again, set security to not allow scripts from there. So then I can go to yahoo games and not get doubleclick again. i like to know that I have NOOOOOOOO spyware, on my pc of any kind. And no installs without me there. Restoration disk is not my favorite thing to do. I try and avoid that. Even if I restore once a year. That is too much for me. Until I get my new pc with a full version of windows which will avoid restoration disk. I make graphics and do web design so I have too much stuff on my pc to restore without a long day of it. ha ha. My huge 6 gig HD! LOL

[This message has been edited by Sparky (edited 06-12-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Sparky (edited 06-12-2002).]

The only thing I tend to find all the time is a double click cookie too, which is not the end of the world. Ordinary cookies are not much of a problem, in fact you need them to prevent having to re-type your password everywhere.

But if you've been running your pc for a long time with no cleanouts, no adaware runs, no internet explorer security tweaking, no firewall tweaking, and no periodic re-installation of windows (even from clean images if not a full install), I suppose it is not that surprising that so many spywares are found. The vast majority are pretty harmless, but I feel that some legislation is required here, because with no controls, the opportunity for abuse is high.

No one has mentioned the fact that microsoft and intel wanted to be able to identify every single computer to its user, presumably to check for software licenses when you go online - and sell the checking information to other companies.

Here the government wants the power to force ISPs to save for ever all details of your internet traffic, the sites you have visited, and copies of all your email, permanently saved on servers for scrutiny by government employees. Talk about a snooper's charter.

Spyware companies are not the only ones we need protection from.......

You certainly make good points here Alec, but I still think it is a lot depending of our selves and the behaviour we show when travel around the web, and if we install about all progs there is to find etc.

Of course it is a good habit to keep the "puter" clean and fresh, but as I said in a post abowe, personally I don't let the paranoia be too heavy, and what is there to know that "Big Brother" don't already know? Not much I guess, even we like it or not...
.... and Microsoft, well, that's really worth look out for, not long before Bill G rules all that there is to rule on this "computer-earth" if they keep on like this!
GJ

Interesting point on microsoft Gunnar Jonny. time released bugs can be put in windows and explorer versions. So then you have to go to windows update so they can reload more time released bugs that get you back for more abuse. Maybe for the newer version and a fresh scan of your HD. LOL Sooner or later you have to go back to miscrosoft.
They are pushing windows XP real hard, considering all the security weakness it has!Just how they like it or what? Lets face it. Bill Gates is in the drivers seat. And he is doing some skillful driving! Question is "where is he trying to drive it"? I guess that is why some people swear by UNIX instead of windows. I have heard some pretty good arguments about UNIX and other web browsers besides Internet Explorer. All just for the sake of not being under Bill Gates control. They say that any person having anything microsoft instead of an alternative is essentially contributing to Bill Gates Power over the world. I suppose they are right to say that but here I am using windows 98 and explorer 6.0. So I am no one to talk, but I was just stating apinion from a group oon the net I ran into the site once.