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Spyware is usually a product or Adware. Adware is software that can be very useful, like CuteFTP, and Go!Zillia. The only problem with programs like this is that most of them (like Go!Zilla) is Spyware, and track you online and send the data back to the data collectors so they can better target ads to you!
There are around 15 major recognized spyware and adware companies. Some of the companies you might have heard about, Adware, Alexa, Aureate, Comet Cursor, Conducent, Cydoor Desktop Media, DoubleClick, EverAd, Flyswat, Gator, Gratisware.com, Hotbar, New.net, Onflow, Web3000, and webHancer.
Most promoters of Spyware or Adware say they are not doing anything wrong because when you agree to the terms or service or the EULA, it states that you will be providing this information to theses companies. Some people don't mind being a nameless statistics generator. But sometimes these programs can lead to problems with your computer, and can even compromise security.
All of these programs will store files on your computer. At worst you will only have a few cookies, but you can have some dll files and registry entries installed on your computer. Spyware is like any other program on your computer. When running, it uses your system memory, and processor to keep it running, taking away precious resources from other, more important programs!
It doesn't stop there. Some programs replace system files with their own version, causing many different problems, and some can cause programs to randomly crash.
The worst problem of all would have to be the compromise of your system's security! When you are sending data across the internet, hackers will be able to find you and a security hole in your computer a tad easier. Sometimes, there might be a hole in the program itself and because it is always sending data from your computer over the net, the hackers will know what program you are running and might exploit the hole!
Some programs like Radiate have a loophole that allows software to be downloaded to your computer and installed without you knowing. Think of what a hacker could do with that!
Known Spyware List
In alphabetical order:
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Numbers 100% Word Search Free® A Abe's FTP Client® B
Balloon Pop Demo® C
Calypso E-mail® D
Danzig Pref Engine® E
EconForecast® F File Mag-Net®File Sniffer® FileSplit® FlexSpex® Folder Guard Jr.® FourTimes® Free Picture Harvester® Free Solitaire® Free Solitaire® Free Spades® Free Submitter Pro® FreeImageEditor® FreeIRC® FreeNotePad® FreeSite® FreeWebBrowser® FreeWebMail® FreeZip!® FTPEditor® G
Galactic Invasion Demo® H
HangWeb® I
Iban Technologies IP Tools 3.1® J
JetCar® K KVT Diplom® L
LapLink FTP® M
Mahjongg Master 2 Demo® |
N NeatFTP®
Of The Day Quizzer® Oxide Demo® P Paragraph Punch® Q QuadSucker/Web® R RadiateRahJongg Demo® Raptor Call of the Shadows Demo® Real Estate Web Site Creator® Recipe Review® ReGet® ReGet 1.6® Resume Detective® RingSurf® RoboCam 1.10® Rosemary's Weird Web World® RubberDuck H30+® S SaberQuest Page Burner® T Tagger® U uICE® V Vagabond's Realm® W W3Filer® X xBlock® Y Your ESP Test® Z Zion® |
Think before you add that cute
free dress up program
Hotbar, for example is a program
that installs hundreds of animated cursors, wallpaper, Internet & email
applications skins and backgrounds.
Sound Good? Not!
Reported Issues:
*It can cause Windows to take over five minutes to start
*Windows runs slow
*Frequent crashing
*Active desktop problems
*Explorer locks up
*Incompatible with Yahoo! companion
*Web browser speed Slow
*Privacy issues
*Excess of unwanted bookmarks installed
Recommend: Uninstall Hotbar!
Hotbar’s "privacy" policy:
The data they collect about you and the ads that they throw at you is amazing.
If it weren't for a
stated "privacy" policy (or "Lack-of-Privacy" policy) and an
End User License Agreement, this program
would be a classified a virus. I would steer as far away from this program as
possible.
Several people have reported to have all or some of the same issues. I am now
officially warning
you what this program can do to your computer, especially in an office
environment.
HuntBar is a toolbar providing searching features, which is added to every
Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer window.
It also changes your home page and search bar settings to point to HuntBar's servers, and automatically opens this search bar when it detects you using any other search engine.
Distribution
Through ActiveX drive-by-download at affiliate sites, possibly in pop-up advertising.
TrafficSyndicate, the makers of HuntBar, offer 'co-branded' versions of HuntBar which may be installed by other sites under a different name.
What it does
Advertising
No.
Privacy violation
HuntBar sends the domain name of the site being viewed, the domain name of any site previously being viewed and the title and any keywords in the current page to its controlling servers whenever a new site is viewed. It does this even if the toolbar is not turned on.
However, it does not (currently) use a cookie or unique ID to track visits across sites.
Security issues
Yes. HuntBar can silently download and execute arbitrary code, as an update feature.
Stability problems
None known.
Removal
TrafficSyndicate offer two removal programs. (Also try Spybot.
I've had recent success removing Huntbar with this program)
Ad-Aware cannot yet remove this parasite.
Manual removal
HuntBar stores its code in a folder called 'MSIETS' inside the 'Common Files' folder in 'Program Files'. Before you can delete it, you must deregister its DLLs. There will be one called 'msiets.dll', and, if HuntBar has been running long enough to download some updates, probably also 'msielink.dll'. If you don't have msielink.dll you will only have to use the first of the two following commands.
Open a DOS command prompt windowfromStart->Programs->Accessories, and enter the commands. For Windows XP, 2000 or NT:
regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msiets.dll"
regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msielink.dll"
Or for Windows 95, 98 or Me:
"%WinDir%\SYSTEM\regsvr32.exe" /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msiets.dll"
"%WinDir%\SYSTEM\regsvr32.exe" /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msielink.dll"
You will need to change the path 'C:\Program Files\Common Files' in the above commands if your Program Files are on a different drive, or have a different name (eg. non-English Windows installations).
Having done this you can restart the machine and delete the MSIETS folder, along with the entry '{8A05273A-2EA5-42DE-AA75-59EA7D9D50D7}' inside 'Downloaded Program Files' in the Windows folder. You can also run 'regedit' and remove these entries from the registry to clean up if you like:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MSIETS
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MSIETSLink
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\{8A05273A-2EA5-42DE-AA75-59EA7D9D50D7}
After removing the software you may want to delete the shortcuts it adds to the desktop, start menu and
favorites menu, and set your search and home pages back to normal (in Control
Panel / Internet Options).
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Ad-Aware |
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Get rid of spyware installed on your
system |
|
Free Download: Spybot Search & Destroy |
Another good Spyware remover
Spybot Search & Destroy, a spyware remover that may be even better than Ad-aware, only because it is more configurable, thus more complicated.
This program spots
many possible instances of spyware. I
recommend only removing those that are automatically selected.
Remember: Some free programs, that is installed, need this spyware to function. I
personally believe, if a program needs spyware to function, I don't
need that program!
It's up to you.
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