Spyware? (General Discussion)

Spyware? // General Discussion

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chickengurl

Mar 29, 2002, 8:42pm
This is not confirmed. I'd just like to make it clear that I've only heard
people talking about it, and do not know if it is true.

Is 3.3 going to be some kind of spyware? Does anyone know?

From what I hear they'll be taking hardware information from your computer.
Not that they don't push it already...If this is true, what exactly do they
want serial numbers of your computer hardware for? It seems like something
realplayer did. Collected MP3 information off of users computers for what
purpose exactly? To do a better job of busting them in the future? I didn't
see any mention of it on the 3.3 help pages, though.

I know there isn't a law passed yet regulating the gather of serial nums
type of stuff, but there's absolutely no reason for them to gather serial
numbers from users other than to ban them from the universe. Which I find to
be invasive, actually. There are plenty of innocent citizens, who I'm sure
like to have their privacy. It's obvious if someone wanted to, they could
easily abuse this ability to gather the information from users.Of course,
the abuse of power is not very uncommon among the human species.

It very well could have been a lie, or a joke...but there's no telling...yet

dion

Mar 29, 2002, 8:45pm
Why does it matter to you?

Also, I posted there as well. It is only spyware if it's done without your
knowledge and/or consent.

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zeo toxion

Mar 29, 2002, 10:08pm
So you don't care if there is software installed without your consent that
contacts a host server to transmit information about you? I find that hard
to believe. Who WOULDNT care about this sort of thing? I'll download 3.3 but
imediatly check it with Ad-Aware (it detects KNOWN spyware, i highly
recomend it) BUT sometimes the software will detect if the spyware installed
with it is removed and will tell you to reinstall but there are ways around
this.

Although i highly doubt AW would steep this low (or WOULD they....?) i'll
still check it to make sure and post here if i find anything. Yes i know, i
will scan directly before and after to prove it.

-Zeo Toxion

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dion

Mar 29, 2002, 11:52pm
lol, no, I don't care if they know what I do on my computer. If you want,
I'll tell you too. I couldn't care less who knows what hardare is on my
computer and what I use my computer for. These people don't know me
personally. They won't come to school tomorrow and make fun of me for
looking at this site or that site. I think some people are just a bit
paranoid about the stupidest things :-P

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zeo toxion

Mar 30, 2002, 1:42am
The thing is you can't be sure what exactly they are collecting. It's an
invasion of privacy and i think they should at least tell you, as most don't
but just print it in ity bity words somewhere inthe mile long agreement. It
also takes up bandwidth with it contacting them all the time and basicly if
you dont want to recieve tosn of ad and/or spam i wouldnt instal spyware.

[View Quote]

dion

Mar 30, 2002, 3:28am
they don't take your e-mail address. In the majority of cases, they take
hardware information. It takes up very very little bandwidth and it doesn't
constantly check it. Just like once during the install or maybe everytime
the program is executed. It is so little, you would never notice it.

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builderz

Mar 30, 2002, 3:54am
Ad-Aware is a great program that detects most spyware located "in the
wild." Spyware is becoming an ever increasing threat. Programs such as
Morpheus, Gator, and RealPlayer all contain or have contained spyware.
Ad-Aware is great at finding known spyware on a Windows OS, like you
stated in your post. However, when it comes to custom made and
commercially available spyware (e.g., Spector) and Trojan horses (e.g.,
the FBI's Magic Lantern, BO2K, SubSeven), Ad-Aware will probably not
detect them. In these cases, anti-virus, anti-Trojan, and packet
sniffing tools are needed.

In my opinion, this sounds like a petty rumor someone dreamed up.
Nevertheless, AWC did recently acquire another company (see their press
releases for details) and they may have a reason for adding some type of
software that is capable of "phoning home." I would contact Roland at
roland at activeworlds.com directly and see what his thoughts are on the
matter are. In addition, once AW 3.3 is finally released, run a packet
sniffing program before, while, and after using AW. Go back and look
through the data the sniffer collected to see if anything is being sent
to AWC (or another third party) that shouldn't be. Finally, report what
you find here in the NG's.

-Builderz

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andras

Mar 30, 2002, 8:08am
[View Quote] Before all the rumours goes to the wild direction:
To assign unique ID for the browser is mandated to get over of the crackers and the "avproxy" guys :) It is a must to get rid of impersonation and to make the user password uncrackable (ok more or less!!).
The ID generation is based on a few random number within your puter (No - I won't tell what numbers are:). MAC address can't be used due to machines without Ethernet cards.
The created number doesn't carry any information about your computer - it used only locally for encripting and used only to generate another random number to assign to your browser session.

Conlusion: NO PERSONAL DATA can be recovered from that number!!!!

I hope it clears some misunderstanding,

Andras

swe

Mar 30, 2002, 10:58am
who wouldnt care? well people who have nothing to hide...
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sw chris

Mar 30, 2002, 5:23pm
Save this message, andras, because I have a feeling someone will need to
explain this again sometime. :)

SW Chris

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kah

Apr 2, 2002, 10:13am
to my knownledge 3.2 gets hardware info to secure your aworld.ini (the PW
encryption uses info from the hardware to encrypt the password, so even if
some stupid script kiddie gets your aworld.ini or the password entry in it,
he won't be able to decrypt it or put it in his own aworld.ini)

KAH

[View Quote]

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