November 2005 Newsletter
Five Things You Need to Know about Spyware
Antispyware pioneers on the decline
New Spyware Deep Scan available at PC Pitstop
State of Texas to Sony: “Stop Making Spyware”
November 2005 Newsletter Read More »
Spyware
Five Behaviors On Which Spyware Companies Prey
By Robert P. Lipschutz
Adware vendors, in their quest to infiltrate computers everywhere, benefit from confusion, a lack of user knowledge, and the realities of human nature. However, by using a combination of defensive strategies, you can lower the impact of adware on your computer. If you wish to enjoy the benefits of “free” Internet software, the primary carrier of adware, diligence is key.
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WhenU Awareness, One Year Later
Since March 2004, PC Pitstop has been surveying WhenU users about their installation experience with WhenU products. Our first report on this data was published in April 2004, and it validated our anecdotal experience that very few users knowingly consent to installing WhenU.
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Survey Says: Gator Users Didn’t Know
Since September 2003, PC Pitstop has been conducting a survey of users who have Gator or GAIN (Gator Advertising Information Network) applications installed on their PC. Our goal was to determine how much permission had really been granted to “permission based marketing” companies by users who install applications such as Gator’s.
Survey Says: Gator Users Didn’t Know Read More »
Spyware Podcast
Here’s a special shoutout to all the Pitstoppers in the Louisiana delta area. Our prayers and heart felt concerns are with you as you go through this incredible disaster. It is times like these when we truly realize how powerless we are to bend this world to our own human desires. I am sure that I am not alone, as I watched hour after hour of television, of the slow developing tragedy developing down in the bayou. The entire world felt the pain down south, but there was little that any of us could do but watch the events unfold.
PC Pitstop Threatened by Spyware Companies
As the companies that use deceptive software installations rack up bigger and bigger profits, their tactics are evolving to further increase their profits and ensure their long term existence. Although we had already been sued by Gator, we were a little surprised when, when we received two emails like the one below last month.
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August 2005 Newsletter
PC Pitstop Optimize – Free Scan
“Take Us Off Your List!”
Google: Is Good Going Bad?
Performance Tip: Stay Cool for Speed
Summer Blockbusters in Spyware
August 2005 Newsletter Read More »
Google – Is Good Going Bad?
Google’s corporate reputation is incredibly good for a company of its size. Yet increasingly, Google is at the scene of Internet frauds and crimes. Our CEO Rob Cheng has described our fight with unscrupulous Google advertisers, and these problems have continued. In April, a site named FasterXP.com begun to advertise with Google AdWords, hawking a product that installed several adware and spyware applications. Since we use Google AdSense, those ads appeared on the PC Pitstop site; several users were taken in before we could block the ad.
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Gator’s Advertisers
Gator/Claria makes its money through advertising. In fact, in their SEC S1 filing (Note: 4 megabyte document!) they had revenues of over $100 million dollars! Many of those advertisers are not aware how users have been unwittingly drafted into Claria’s ad network via confusing tactics. The challenge for us is to get the message to these companies, and there is one group that can effectively deliver that message: customers and potential customers.
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They’re doing it again!
More BitTorrent fireworks went off over the July 4th holiday. After the last episode it was inevitable that the pests would come crawling back, but so soon? I plucked two files and installed them to get the details, but I saw at least a dozen more files that are likely to have the same installer. Here’s what I found out so far.
They’re doing it again! Read More »