PC Matic Blog • Page 4 of 7

Microsoft’s Image

chengrob / July 19, 2005

About a year ago, I was helping a friend with some minor computer problems in his small business in Rio. He is a pretty smart guy, but his computer knowledge was lacking, and I wanted to help. As we sat down at the computer, we got the familiar XP error message that asked us whether we want to send the error details back to Microsoft. My neophyte friend hit “Do Not Send” immediately. When I asked why, he said “I don’t trust those bastards for anything and I would never send personal information over the internet to them.”

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Shameless Optimism

Dave / June 22, 2005

Take a look at our in-depth investigation of infected files distributed via BitTorrent P2P networks and you’ll start to understand how hopeless it is to expect the adware industry to police itself. In some cases I think the problem is that adware companies are truly naive about how they are being played by their affiliate networks. In others, it’s easy to see that the companies are working hard on their see-no-evil position to futher their own company goals. Whether they’re being played for suckers or silently participating in this nasty business, the outcome for consumers is the same.

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P2P Downloads Fuel Spyware

Dave / June 21, 2005

PC Pitstop has previously examined the dangers in P2P software bundles but there are also dangers in the files you can get from these networks. Last week, Chris Boyd (a.k.a. PaperGhost) of VitalSecurity.org published the first public information of spyware installs created by a company named Marketing Metrix Group (MMG). In many ways, though, that is the last chapter of the story.

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Tribal Fusion Advertising

chengrob / June 19, 2005

Since early in 2002, we have been using an ad network called Tribal Fusion that serves banner and popup ads to our web site. And since 2002, I have hated these popup ads. Dave would regularly bother me to kill the popup ads, but we just could not afford to do it. Advertisers are willing to pay a significant premium for pop up ads, and at times they have been a significant portion of our revenues. Although XP Service Pack 2 initially provided a respite to users with its built-in popup blocker, nearly all the ad networks have found ways around popup blockers, which makes the popups even more annoying.

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What is spyware?

chengrob / June 15, 2005

Over the past few years, a new class of software has emerged that’s up to no good. It goes by many names: spyware, adware, foistware, malware, eulaware, or even crapware. For simplicity we’ll just call them all spyware. Here are some of the “features” you get from spyware. Some spyware may only use one or two of these tactics, while others do quite a bit more.

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June 2005 Newsletter

PC Matic Cybersecurity / June 12, 2005

New Tests and Site Navigation
PC Pitstop Punts Popups
P2P and Spyware
Live Tech Support Available
No Relation to MyPCTuneup.com!
Performance Tip: Prune Your Prefetch

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Remove Gator/Claria Products

PC Matic Cybersecurity / June 7, 2005

Gator claims that it’s easy to remove their applications:

“All GAIN supported applications are easily removable via the application’s uninstaller and or the Windows Add/Remove Programs Control Panel. A few minutes after all GAIN applications have been uninstalled, the GAIN software is designed to self uninstall.” –Gator support response

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What You Can Do

PC Matic Cybersecurity / May 26, 2005

Do you believe that Gator needs to exercise more care in getting permission to install and informing users about the license terms they are accepting? If so, here are some things you can do to encourage Gator to change its policies and practices.

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Chasing Children

Dave / May 12, 2005

–Dave Methvin, Chief Techology Officer, PC Pitstop

PC Pitstop has mentioned the problem with spyware and kids before, but last week’s CNet spyware conference showed it isn’t going to be easy getting quick and meaningful action on this issue. It’s too bad. While some adware makers like WhenU seemed to be genuinely interested in changing their ways, others like Claria seemed intentionally evasive and unwilling to change any of their practices.

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Eighty-Seven Percent of WhenU Users Are Unaware They Are Using It

chengrob / April 28, 2005

Note: This report was originally published in April 2004 and submitted to the US Federal Trade Commission for their Spyware Workshop. A followup report with updated data was published in April 2005.

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