Site Privacy issues

From: Jim Isbell <millenniumfalcon_at_cableone.net>
Date: Sun Sep 19 14:38:27 2004

If cookies are a worry, do as I do. I run a program called SpyHunter
that runs on boot up every time. It then offers to scan my compiuter
for Spy Ware. Since that takes some time I usualy opt only for a scan
of my cookies. This takes about 2 seconds, no more, and I have a full
report on the cookies. Since I have 17 cookies that are legitimate I
usualy just look at the count. If it hasnt increased I go on. BUT
there is also displayed a list of any dangerous cookies, their
properties and who owns them. If the list is blank then all is well.
 If not I stop and delete the offending cookies. The software is FREE.

Gordon JC Pearce wrote:

> John Lawson wrote:
>
>> What irked me (and still irks me) about your post, was *not* your
>> feelings towards my admittedly paranoid view anent intrusions on my
>> personal computers - no, what pissed me off was that I was ready to
>> learn from you and honor your knowledge - I was thinking that rather
>> than engage in jejune absurdities, you'd have taken the time and
>> space to help me out a bit - show me that perhaps I'm over-reacting -
>> tell me why I oughta let the little cookies live on my machines.
>
>
> Ok, ok... In my own defence might I just say that I have spent
> roughly a third of my 2-and-a-half weeks holiday clearing up the
> devastation that only unpatched Windows 2000 machines can bring, and
> was feeling a little sore when I posted.
>
>> Instead, you very heavily patronized *myself* with your adolescent
>> screed of more-and-more ridiculous questions... "do I remove the
>> battery at night and re-set the BIOS every morning" indeed!
>
>
> Don't laugh. I knew someone who did this. Really. They had read in
> $pseudotechy_periodical that viruses could live in the NVRAM in your
> PCs clock chip. I kid you not.
>
>> I have had this IBM Thinkpad for about five years now, and got it
>> while I still lived and working in Southern India. I have a firewall,
>> a virus-checker, a spyware checker, and I disallow active-X, Java,
>> Flash, Coookies (unless I can't get business done w/out them)etc. To
>> date I have had one 'infection'; the Welchia Worm. And I got that
>> during a network setup sesson at my employer's - I had to shutdown my
>> firewall to synchronize permissions and set up various clients,
>> someone else on the network was infected and I got it. Noticing that
>> my port was communicating at nearly it's capacity and my computer was
>> getting slow, I scnned it and killed the bug. And that has been the
>> only problem I've had to deal with in five years.
>
>
> I had a clever-clogs in the office of an Internet service provider I
> used to work for disconnect his PC from the LAN and hook up a modem so
> he could "send mailshots properly" - he'd taken it upon himself to do
> a spot of "advertising" for our company. He was dialled up for around
> 25 minutes, and his machine was infected with Blaster. This is
> despite keeping it up-to-date (there wasn't a patch at this point),
> although there was no firewall software on the machine. Not a lot of
> point, when you're supposed to be behind a proper firewall, is there?
>
>> Thus am I being: Paranoid? Careful? Absurd? You tell me, Gordon.
>> Just keep the sarcasm and grandiose flights of superiority to
>> yourself, please.
>
>
> Eeeh, ok. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinions. Certainly
> people can and do use cookies for identifying repeat visits, for
> advertising and the like. You can block these with any Mozilla-based
> browser, and someone said (possibly on this list) that IE6 can do it
> now too. Since I don't run Windows (never have done, don't intend to)
> I can't verify this. Leaving cookies off and only turning them on for
> sites that need them seems a bit pointless and inconvenient, but if it
> makes you happier then go right ahead.
>
> I have to say, I am somewhat surprised at the number of people who do
> use Windows on this list. I would have thought that the various
> open-source Unix-alikes would have appealled more. Just don't let the
> l337 skript kiddies get any ideas, in case they come up with some
> 0-day 'sploit for TSS-8!
>
> Gordon.
>
Received on Sun Sep 19 2004 - 14:38:27 BST