Everything about spyware...

Because there were a lot of posts about spyware on CD Freaks lately I decided to write a small article about it. More and more spyware programs are being detected, and not only Internet software but also other software like games as Black&White (no fear, B&W isn't). Let's take a look.

1. What is spyware?

Spyware is common language for Advertising Supported software (Adware). It is mostly used by authors to make money from their product. If they make money this way, they don't have to sell their product to the end user. Spyware has 2 sides:

• Banner ads.
  A common move from software publishers. They add a banner into their software and get paid for that. Several large media companies offer this to companies. This way you don't have to pay for your freeware product. Programs like eDonkey and KaZaA have this. It's not that bad I think. If you don't want to have banners in the program there usually is a way to buy the program which eliminates the banners.
  An example of such a company is Web3000, check here for their so called revenue based model. A second is example is CyDoor.
• Additional tracking software.
  This one isn't that nice as banner ads. This software is continuously contacting it's own server and sending data. All kinds of information is being send. This could be statistics like cpu usage (like winamp does), but also stuff like e-mail addresses, visited websites or why not even your credit card number or your home location. We don't know exactly what is really send. Your home computer is turning into a real server which sends out all kinds of info. There is no way to control what data is being sent. Companies collecting this info usually sell the info to other companies for marketing usage.

2. Is this legal?

Yes it is. But they do need to have a good privacy statement. However I checked some of them and I must say the most are really bad. First you have to search hard for them. Second they are not telling everything in "plain normal text". What do you say about "enjoy rich multimedia displays", with other words: banners. Or what about 'nonspecific' data . Currently the legislation doesn't say much about this subject. The only thing is that web sites that collect personal data should be required to provide "notice, choice, access and security" in relation to their activities. Well the problem is how these principles should be applied in practice. There are no firm rules about this.

At the end of Jan 2001 Sen. John Edwards had again reintroduced legislation about this subject in the US. In oct 2000 he proposed:

Under S. 3180, the "Spyware Control and Privacy Protection Act," manufacturers that build spyware into their products must give consumers clear and conspicuous notice - at the time of installation - that the software contains spyware. Such a notice would describe what information would be collected and to whom it would be sent. The spyware would then be forced to lie dormant unless the consumer chooses to enable it.S. 3180 would exempt spyware used to gather information that would only be used to provide technical support for the software, or to determine if a given user is a licensed user of the product.

I think this is also very wide, saying "licensed user of the product". Anyway it is (still) legal and I think it's not going to change fast.

3. Programs & Ad companies?

Well let's take a look at some spyware programs and what they do. I will investigate some napster alternatives since they are very popular these days. I've checked all the privacy statements and I will mention some highlights:

BearShare

• SaveNow (http://www.whenu.com)
  • Sends u spam mail. They say to alert you for various offers or information.
  • Collects user information such as gender, age and zip code to compile trend information and usage patterns.
    If you are younger than 13 years of age, no information is collected.
  • Collected info will be sold to third parties.
• Onflow (http://www.onflow.com)
  • Sends u spam mail: "updates to our Authoring System and/or the availability of additional services".
  • You will see banners in your player browser: "enjoy rich multimedia displays through your browser".
  • They collect all web pages you visit, all images displayed and whether you moved your mouse over the image or clicked on it.
  • Information will be sold and will be published in online surveys from time to time.

More info about Bearshare: http://www.bearshare.com.

Audiogalaxy

• webHancer (http://www.webhancer.com/)
  • Of course name and email address is collected first.
  • Send spam (provide product and promotion updates).
  • collects performance data with transactions with e-business sites.
  • They will sell personal information.

More info about Audiogalaxy: http://www.audiogalaxy.com/.

Spotlight

• Radiate Aureate (http://www.radiate.com)
  • Sends u advertising
  • Collects certain 'nonspecific' data
  • Asks u some 'nonspecific' questions

I must say a positive point from Radiate: these guys made their own uninstaller. It removes the DLL's from your system. Check this site for more info.

More info about Spotlight: http://www.ironblade.com.

iMesh

• Conducent/Timesink (http://www.conducent.com)
  • Website unavailable, so I couldn't check the specifications

More info about iMesh: http://www.imesh.com.

I have tried to give you some specifications about each ad company but it's hard to see what they really do. This is also the problem: you can't control anything so you don't really know what they do.

But of course this is not all. What do you think of Go!Zilla, Realplayer, Getright, FlashGet, 3D Anarchy, CuteFTP or WinEdit. All have some kind of spyware in it. Check here for a list with 300+ other programs.

A good online search engine is SpyChecker. You can search for a program and see if it is spyware-free.

Fortunately not every program is spyware. There are a lot of companies who don't want to use this kind of spying. For example eDonkey said on their website:
"There won't be any porn, popups, or spyware.".

4. Spyware: the solution

So I guess nobody wants spyware on his computer. Well you don't have to, thanx to Lavasoft. They created a program called Ad-aware. Ad-aware is a free multi-spyware removal tool that detects and safely removes advertising spyware from your system. It will scan your system for known advertising systems and lets you remove them from your system.

It will scan your memory, registry and file system for known modules.

From the site:

Sound good. I tried this on my own computer and found some spyware stuff. Fortunately it were only some cookies who were collecting data and no programs. I let the program delete all the relevant cookies.

The following advertising systems are detected by Ad-aware 4.6: Adware, Alexa 1.0-5.0, Aureate v1.0,2.0 + 3.0, Comet Cursor v1.0 and v2.0, Cydoor, Doubleclick, DSSAgent, EverAd, Flyswat, Gator, OnFlow-Player, SaveNow, TimeSink v1.0,v2.0 and v5.0, HotBar, Web3000 and Webhancer. So I guess that will cover most of them If you are interested in this program check the site here and go to the download site here.

5. Conclusion

I think spyware sucks, at least the tracking software. I don't mind the programmers who put a banner in their program because I can understand they have to make money too. If you don't like the banner you can usually buy the program. I do mind the tracking software because I don't want everyone to know what pages I visit and what my personal info is. Also the programmers who force you to install this spyware don't get my blessing. Perhaps if it is asked in a very clear way and explains in detail what the software collects, people would install it (not me). But not to mention anything at all is really low. Fortunately we have Ad-Aware to remove this. I would advise you to install it and to check it once in a while.