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There Is A Spy In Your ComputerRonald Porep, Republished from SafetyIssues Issue 6 |
Volume 4 Issue 42May 2005 |
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Imagine there is a little man in your home or office writing down
everywhere you go on the Internet. He reports your activities to his
employers who then pass that information onto others. While most homes and
offices do not have such spies, a piece of software may be running on your
home or office computer that is recording what you do on the Internet. The catch is you never knew you put this software on your computer because you acquired it with some other software you wanted such as a music file downloading program or software that allows you to watch videos on your computer. |
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Adware Is Spyware The software is commonly known as adware (or Spyware) because it sends your personal information to advertisers so they know what you are interested in and can send you advertisements (emails or pop up ads for example) about new products or services they offer which might interest you. Not too invasive. But that can change. Experts in the so-called Spyware industry say the software can send almost any personal information on your computer (checking account information for example) if instructed to do so. "Most of these Adbots or Spyware programs DON'T collect specific information about you, but only report general demographics, and therefore are NOT stealing your name, credit card, or other personal information. But these capabilities do exist,” describes Spyware Watch, a United Kingdom Web site devoted to informing the public about the spy in your computer. Companies have used these advanced capabilities. Last November, Real Networks, the maker of RealPlayer, was caught gathering listening habits, preferred music genres, and other information from anyone who installed its popular Real Jukebox program. Although the company claimed to be profiling users' listening habits in order to customize Real Jukebox for each person, those users didn't know they were being monitored. After much public out cry, Real Networks quickly revised its privacy policy and released a patch that let users block the transmission of their personal information. The tracking capability used by Real has, of course, been increased. Cookies and More Cookies are the small text files a Web server sends to your browser to remember pages you've visited or that fill in information and passwords automatically. Cookies used to be a concern of the Internet privacy advocates but a Web surfer can tell his browser not to accept cookies or warn you when a cookie tries to embed itself in your computer. Cookies store personal information such as your name and address, as well as track your surfing habits. Often they're used to personalize Web sites (such as when NBCi.com greets you by name) or to fill in forms when you return to a site (so that you don't need to type in your name and password again, for example), recognize your buying habits (when Amazon.com recommends books you might like), and serve up targeted ads. Today, cookies are the least of your Spyware concerns. |
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| One of the most advanced threats is known as the Web bug. Unlike cookies, Web bugs show up as tiny image files embedded in a Web page or an HTML formatted email message. They're usually invisible--so tiny, you'd never notice them--and they gather information ranging from your computer's IP address to your surfing habits, including the type of browser you're using. They're particularly nefarious because you can't see them, and anti cookie filters won't catch them. |
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In addition to capturing surfing information and IP addresses, Web bugs
can "talk" to cookies on your computer left by the same site or
advertising company. Online ad company
DoubleClick,
for example, used Web bugs that could communicate with cookies from its
Web site. The cookies then revealed past online behavior, even home
addresses, IP addresses, and phone numbers to the bugs, and the bugs sent
that information straight back to Double Click. Is that invasive enough? It gets worse. Web bugs can tie cookie histories to personal identifying information, such as your phone number and address. In fact, a California woman sued Double Click for just that behavior. The company bought another firm, Abacus Direct, which holds detailed consumer profiles on more than 90 percent of U.S. households. Double Click cross-referenced its Spy ware results with that database to compile surprisingly personal profiles. For most of us that is a bit too invasive. Web Privacy Protection But what can we do to stop this invasion of our privacy? For starters, crumble the cookies that have been imbedded in your Web browser. In Netscape Navigator to find the cookies .txt file. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, find the TXT files in Windows • Cookies. Open these files and the cookies will be displayed as a string of text that has been assigned by a site to your computer. To dump cookies, close your browser, then just delete the cookies you don't want. In fact, you can make the whole process automatic by downloading the Cookie Web Kit is a set of downloadable tools that deletes cookie files automatically whenever you boot up or you can download other software that will accept or decline cookies based on the preferences you give the software such as Cookie Cruncher, Cookie Crusher or Cookie Pal which you can download free. Internet security packages such as those sold by Norton or Ontrack will also do the job. Web bugs are harder to eliminate than cookies. The only sure way to stop Web bugs is to turn off the graphics in your browser, blocking all images embedded in Web sites. Unfortunately, that means you miss out on photographs and drawings on the Web, too. However, you can spot bugs on Web pages by viewing the source code of the page, which will warn you to avoid the site in the future. This method won't stop the bugs that are already on your system, however. The more computer savvy user can spot bugs on Web pages by viewing the source code of the page, which will warn you to avoid the site in the future. This method won't stop the bugs that are already on your system, however. To see the Web bugs on a site, choose Source in the View menu in Internet Explorer or Page Source in the View menu in Navigator. If you know a Web site implants Web bugs on your computer then you can simply avoid the site. For other invasions of your Web privacy, you can download one of two software packages – AD-aware and Opt out - which will detect and eliminate any unwanted Spyware (other than cookies and Web bugs). Both software packages scan for and rid your system of specific, ad-related software. AD-aware hunts for flyswat, Web3000, Gator, Cydoor, Aureate (now Radiate), Conducent/TimeSink (all snoops for ad firms), and Comet Cursor (which, though not ad-supported Spyware, does count cursors displayed at partner sites) tracking files, while Opt Out advertisement-monitoring software boots Radiate files from your system. Your best protection though is buying Internet security software that will scan your entire computer for any software that sends information out on the Internet without your approval. Such software is not inexpensive but then how much do you value your online privacy? |
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