The Spyware Weekly Newsletter is distributed every week to 20,000 subscribers and read online by hundreds of thousands of visitors. Please read our Terms of Use for quoting guidelines. http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/newlsetter/oct28,2003.

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Online advertising company Gator has sued popular web site PC Pitstop for calling their software "spyware". Gator claims their software is not "spyware" because people are "clearly notified before downloading it".

Many thousands of people would dispute just how "clear" that "notification" really is. Go to any message board or newsgroup on Earth that discusses PC problems and do a search for "Gator". Now compare the number of people who say they installed Gator themselves to the number of people wondering where it came from. Countless numbers of people do not install Gator on their computers knowingly, they discover it after running an antispyware program.

I held a poll last year asking if people who had ever had Gator on their computer installed it voluntarily. Eighty percent of the voters said they did not willingly or knowingly install Gator. Perhaps Gator should explain how all of these people did not see their "clear notification".

Now let us look at what Gator does once it has installed.

One of the first things Gator's software does is to generate a tracking number that is unique to the computer. Privacy rights advocate Richard Smith discovered that part of this unique number seemed to include the address of his ethernet adapter.

Gator collects information about which web pages are loaded into Internet Explorer. The software records how the user interacts with the ads popped up by Gator. Gator's software rifles through the user's computer to record the names of all the software installed on that computer. The software will gather the user's first name and zip code. The software collects information that is entered into the forms on a web page, including part of the user's credit card number!

All of this information is cross referenced with that unique tracking number generated when the software is installed, then it is uploaded to Gator-owned servers over the internet.

The behavior of this software apparently fits PC Pitstop's definition of spyware. It also fits the definition used by every single company which makes an antispyware program. However, it does not fit Gator's own definition of spyware. And that is the whole problem.

There is no "official" definition of the word "spyware" as it relates to adware. However, there are several unofficial definitions published by various web sites. Because of this, people tend to point to whichever definition best fits their own needs.

It seems that Gator did just that, finding a definition for spyware that does not include their software's behavior and then suing to make that definition stick. I am very glad that PC Pitstop settled that lawsuit and avoided the danger of Gator's definition becoming a "legal" definition.

I hope to have more about this later this week or next week. Stay tuned!

Links:

http://www.pcpitstop.com :: PC Pitstop
http://www.computerbytesman.com :: Richard Smith's web site
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5095051.html :: Gator Sues PC Pitstop
http://doxdesk.com/parasite/Gator.html :: Analysis of Gator
http://www.gatorcorporation.com/help/psdocs/datause50.html :: Gator Privacy Policies

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Program: Spy Sweeper
Author: Webroot Software
Platform: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP
License: $29.95
Purchase: Click here to purchase

Spy Sweeper is a relatively new antispyware program from Webroot, the company that makes Window Washer (another program that I really like). It has received some very favorable reviews and awards. Spy Sweeper received a 4 star review from PC Magazine just last month.

If you had tried Spy Sweeper version 1.x earlier this year, you probably were not very impressed with it. To be honest, neither was I. However, Webroot's project manager for Spy Sweeper allowed some of our expert members at the message board to test it shortly before it was released officially.

Over the course of several weeks, we poked and prodded it, pointing out flaws and making suggestions. Most of the suggestions we made after testing version 1.x clearly were incorporated into version 2.x. It scans much faster than before and is much more configurable.

The new Spy Sweeper 2.1 absolutely rocks. On my computer (Athlon XP 1700, 512MB RAM), Spy Sweeper scans in less than thirty seconds. You also can set it to do a much more extensive scan of the entire hard drive. This takes much longer (about 8-10 minutes on my machine), so I'd advise doing this when the computer is not being used. Spy Sweeper will let you schedule an automatic scan, so this is no problem.

The slick interface is very user-friendly and intuitive. You can install this on your grandmother's PC and she will not have any trouble using it. If you don't know what a particular button does, you can just hover the mouse over it for a description.

Spy Sweeper will detect and eradicate virtually every known adware, spyware, browser hijacker and porn dialer out there and it is updated soon after new ones are discovered. It also seeks out surveillance spyware and keylogging trojans.

Spy Sweeper provides active protection against home page hijackers and cookies belonging to web sites known to invade your privacy. It also monitors your PCs memory to watch for targets being loaded in the background.

The results list, showing the targets found after a scan, is the best of any antispyware program. If 20 components are found that all belong to Gator, Spy Sweeper will collapse those results to a single line. Every other antispyware displays an enormous list of individual items and that makes it hard to read. Expand the listing and it will show you each component it found along with its location.

At the bottom, Spy Sweeper shows detailed information about each component, including location and to which category it belongs. If you want more information about a particular item that has been detected, highlight that item in the list and click the "More Details" button to be taken to Webroot's online database to read more about it. Not everything has a description yet, but they are adding more to it all the time.

Spy Sweeper is careful to point out when removing a particular piece of adware will cause the program that installed it to stop working. Some free programs such as KaZaA will stop working if you remove the obnoxious adware that it installs, so this is a nice feature.

Click here to purchase Spy Sweeper.

Links:

http://www.webroot.com/wb/land/land-spysweeper6_6.php?rc=325 Spy Sweeper Product Info
http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/email2.php Suggest a product

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A question people ask me all the time is "Why can't I delete the 'Temporary Internet Files', History or Cookies folders?". The reason these folders are difficult to delete is because there is one file being held open in memory, index.dat. A file in use cannot be deleted so, whenever someone tries to delete those folders, Windows pops up an obnoxious error about a file being in use.

On a computer with Internet Explorer 4, 5 or 6 installed, the index.dat file in the "Temporary Internet Files" and Cookies folders points Windows at the proper files within Internet Explorer's cache folders so that it can access them faster. The file in the History folder is a collection of URL entries used for AutoComplete and for deciding if you already have visited a page being linked on another page.

The index.dat files in all three locations contain the address of the web site associated with the file or entry. The file in the History folder also includes the date and time stamps on which they were last accessed and how many times you have visited. [reference]

It is possible for someone with access to the computer to piece together a very detailed log of your web surfing activities using these index.dat files. Check out this screenshot to see what I mean.

Since Microsoft has embedded their Internet Explorer browser directly into the operating system itself, the index.dat files are always in memory. This makes it nearly impossible to delete the folders in question and clean up computer usage history.

Some people believe there is a conspiracy at M$ headquarters to hide these files from you and make them impossible to delete. Personally, I believe it was bad design and poor communications between separate groups of programmers. Certainly this is not unheard of in Redmond.

Despite Microsoft's bad design (or malicious intent, depending on the thickness of your tin foil beanie), these files actually can be deleted using a couple of different methods.

Be aware that you may lose your cookies if you delete the "Temporary Internet Files" folder and you definitely will lose them if you delete the cookies folder. If you have cookies you wish to save, before doing any of this, delete all of your other cookies from the cookies folder, then use the export wizard to save them. The import/export wizard is located under Internet Explorer's File menu.

If your computer runs on Windows NT, 2000 or XP, this is very easy. You simply log out of your normal account and into an account with administrator privileges. Create a new administrator account from Control Panel > Users if you have to do so.

Navigate to the folder locations using Windows Explorer and simply delete them. Since you are not logged into those accounts, Windows is not using them and they can be deleted normally. The next time you log on, Windows will try to open the index.dat files, find they are missing and recreate them and their folders from a default template.

In Windows NT, 2000 and XP, the folders are located in these locations:
C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Cookies\
C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\History\
C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\

If your computer runs on Windows 95 and 98, reboot into MS-DOS mode and run the following commands at the command prompt:

cd windows
deltree /y cookies
deltree /y history
deltree /y tempor~1

If you are unfortunate enough to have Windows ME, you have my deepest sympathies. Among its other flaws, ME does not allow you to boot directly into DOS mode. You will have to create a boot floppy and reboot the computer from that floppy before you can run those commands. Follow these directions from bootdisk.com to make a boot disk if you don't have one, then run the same commands above.

The steps above will take care of the infamous index.dat files without having to download and install third party software. Even if you don't care about all the web addresses stored in these files, you should still do this every so often, as the files will just continue to fill with more and more addresses. Once they reach a certain size, these files may cause problems with Internet Explorer and cause it to become unstable.

Links:

http://www.bootdisk.com/readme.htm#howto :: How to create a boot floppy
http://www.purgeie.com/indexdat.htm :: Index.Dat Files and Primary I.E. Folders
http://www.paladin-press.com/detail.aspx?ID=28 :: Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/images/misc/index_text_scan.png :: Contents of an index.dat file
http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml :: Microsoft's Really Hidden Files (Warning: Language)

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After being crippled by the US Congress earlier this year, the Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA) project, was believed to be all but dead, at least for now. TIA has been criticised widely for being unnecessarily intrusive. However, a similar project now is underway in Florida that is attracting the attention of individual state governments across the United States.

The Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix as it has been dubbed, combines police crime databases with commercial databases. This allows law enforcement to discern relationships between people and events faster than ever before. The system allows police to access a person's criminal history, driver license data, vehicle registration records and incarceration/corrections records. This includes digitized photographs, along with a "significant" amount of information gathered from commercial databases.

For instance, if a red-headed man driving a blue Chevrolet Camaro abducts a child, police will be able to look up the names, addresses and criminal history of every red-headed male living within 100 miles that owns a blue Camaro.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has severed his state's participation with the project. Governor Perdue cited concerns about privacy and the cost to taxpayers of participating. The final impetus in the governor's decision was a letter from Georgia's Attorney-General, Thurbert Baker, pointing out the fact that full participation actually would violate privacy laws in effect in Georgia.

"I have held serious concerns about the privacy issues involved with this project all along and have decided it is in the best interest of the people of Georgia that our state have no further participation in the Matrix pilot project," Perdue said during a press conference held in Cobb County. "We believe [that] Georgia people are innocent until proven guilty."

As I happen to live in the state of Georgia, I decided to write to my governor to thank him for making this decision.

Governor Perdue,

As a resident of Georgia and as the editor of an internet publication dealing with privacy issues, I would like to thank you for ending Georgia's involvement with the MATRIX project.

Personally, I don't feel the slightest bit safer by having my civil liberties or privacy rights intruded upon. I am glad you agree.

Sincerely,

Mike Healan
http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/

Links:

http://www.iir.com/matrix/ :: Matrix Project Web Site
http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/newlsetter/aug12,2003#Matrix :: The Matrix, TIA Reloaded
http://forums.spywareinfoforum.info/?showtopic=14853 :: Discuss this at the forums
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33540.html :: Georgia runs from the MATRIX
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1003/22matrix.html :: State won't give driver data to Matrix
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpsch213503428oct21,0,3927478.story :: Just how effective are computer databases anyway?

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A year ago, if you had asked anyone what the biggest scourge of the internet was, chances are they would have spat out something unprintable about X-10. X-10 makes a small spy camera that supposedly is pretty good for its price. I wouldn't know because I certainly will never buy one.

In late 2001, X-10 rolled out an advertising campaign that buried virtually the entire Internet with pop-under ads. Within a month, X-10 was one of the most hated names on the internet.

There is such a thing as karma and, occasionally, it bites you right on the ass.

As it turns out, X-10 stole their business model from two brothers working out of their childhood home. X-10 contracted with the boys to run their advertising campaign, then didn't pay them. In fact, they stole the plan the boys came up with and carried it out themselves!

The brothers sued X-10 and last week were awarded a judgement of 4.3 million dollars. X-10 has filed for bankruptcy protection and may well be heading for that big Pop-up blocker in the sky. Or, more likely, underground with all the other scumbags.

Good riddance. Sayonara. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out.

Related:

http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-5095260.html :: X10 files for Chapter 11

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Did you know that anyone can request your personal information through your Internet Service Provider (ISP) by filling out a simple form letter?

The DMCA subpoena process is truly a rubber stamp. Anyone claiming an interest in copyright need only file a "good faith" statement of copyright infringement with the clerk of the court. There is no judicial oversight prior to the issuance of the subpoena, the accuser never has to appear in court and never has to explain what he/she does with your private information. These flaws allow anyone to seek personal information on any Internet user without the usual safeguards associated with other types of subpoenas.

More: http://www.sbc.com/corporate_citizenship/0,,1882,00.html

Links:

http://www.sbc.com/Common/files/doc/ellis_testimony.doc :: SBC VP testifying before the U.S. Senate
http://forums.spywareinfoforum.info/index.php?showtopic=14813 :: Discuss this at the forums

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SpywareInfo soon will have a brand new dedicated server to handle better the ever-increasing traffic to and from the site. The shared server on which the site is now located simply cannot handle the strain.

With a new server, hopefully you will have no problems reaching this site or receiving your Spywareinfo newsletters. And, yes, Mike will try to send out only one (1) copy of the newsletter each week. As you know, sometimes you may have received a couple of editions of the same newsletter because there have been problems with the server. With this dedicated server, those problems should be eliminated (although his ISP is a different story).

With this new server, there is a significant increase in operating expenses. Spywareinfo has been able to maintain itself and remain a free internet publication through the sale of the 'featured product' each week. This is an excellent product that is presented to you each week - and at a superb discount.

However, the cost of hosting SpywareInfo has just increased dramatically. In order to meet the increased expenses, Mike is willing to try to offer you Spywareinfo branded products: t-shirts, caps, mouse pads, golf shirts, bumper stickers, boxer shorts and so on. We hope that this will offset some of the expenses and that it also will spread the word about this site.

What is needed is a logo. It has to be something eye-catching and unique. Mike has not liked the ones that I have had done up and presented to him. He suggested that there might be people in the reading audience who might have some ideas and would like some publicity for their art / graphics work.

If we use your logo, we will give you credit on the site's "Donations" and "About" pages. The only criteria are:

1. That it is an original piece of work to which you legally may transfer the rights
2. That somewhere on the logo it states "www.spywareinfoforum.info"
3. All images must have a minimum height and width of 200 pixels and should be in RGB color format, not CMYK (I have no idea what that means, but those are the rules at cafepress.com)

Click here to email your ideas.

We thank you for your support and your logo ideas!

Look for a logo soon!

Catherine

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Do you like SpywareInfo and this newsletter? Then please tell a few friends about it! We are trying to come up with ways to increase the number of visitors to the web site and the number of subscribers of this newsletter.

Recently I signed up for RecommendIt's service, also used by Scot Finnie and Fred Langa. When you use RecommendIt's service to send a link to a friend or family member, you can also choose to enter a contest with a grand prize of $10,000.

The privacy policy of the site looks solid and I did ask around if anyone had heard anything bad about it before I signed up for it. You can use their service to recommend SpywareInfo to someone you know at http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=881459

Of course, you don't *have* to use RecommendIt's site to send a friend a link to the site. Just sending an email will also do the trick.

Links:

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com Scot Finnie's Newsletter
http://www.langa.com/newsletter.htm The Langalist