Scanning Programs?

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

There seems to be a lot of Spyware/Adware/Virus removal programs available these days.Some for free, some at low cost.
I recently downloaded one to try to get rid of a bunch of adware picked up from a phishy eBay question.
These programs all want to scan your entire computer ostensibly to "check for adware/viruses,etc."
How can I be sure the program isn't just storing up info about me and firing it off to some data collector next time I go online?
At this point I don't trust any of them.
Is there some program or way to
check these "scanning" programs for data collection/transmission capabilities?

Ron Victoria · From: New Jersey, USA

Ad Aware SE has a good rep. I run it every week or so and zap about 30 critters.

Ron

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

Ron, Thanks for the reply.
I have Ad Aware 6.0 which was a free download.I also use it for "critter" zapping.Seems to work on a lot of them.

How do we know Ad Aware isn't making their money from selling data collected from scanning our computers.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Wiz will know! He posted a message several weeks ago with scanning program recommendations. Sorry I can't resurrect the thread. Hey Wiz, can you do a repeat?

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 23 August 2005 at 09:23 AM.]

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed before (maybe it has and I don't see it)
Seems like the proverbial "no brainer".
We give these programs free reign to rifle through all our files.
The old, Fox in the Henhouse.What keeps them from having lunch,on us?

Will Holtz · From: San Francisco, California, USA

There are geeks out there who worry about such things. If any of the normally recommended anti-spyware packages did these types of nasty things, someone would notice and word of such bad behavior travels quickly across the Internet. If you are truely completely parianoid, perhaps you and your computer should not be connected to the Internet. But for most people I'd recommend finding someone highly knowledgable about computers that you can trust and take their recommendations seriously. I think everyone on this message board has a nice slate of trustworthy computer wizs to choose from.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

I see my name was mentioned regarding my reply to a similar thread. Mark's question is a legitimate concern for people who have been bitten once or twice already. However, there is an answer.

The Spyware community is made up of thousands of miscreants, script kiddies, crooks, sleaze bags, spammers, affiliates without consciences, and genuine rip-off artists. These people are in it for the money ... big money. Every time an ad popup, or homepage/ search page hijacker program gets installed onto a personal computer (or "personal confuser" as Leo Laporte used to call them), the "owner" of that distribution gets paid for clicks and ad displays.

Because nobody wants spyware, adware, keyloggers, or browser hijackers to operate on their computers they often turn to the first source that offers to help. Too often those sources are rip-offs that use false positives to goad people into paying to remove the "infections" it found. These "Sleazeware" programs may even spy on the online activities of the victims they claim to be helping.

On the other hand the Anti-Spyware Community is made up mostly of concerned Netizens, who are fed up with the tactics used by the Spyware people, and who use their expertise to either write donationware spyware detection and removal programs, or host forums where volunteers help the afflicted to clean out the trash that was downloaded without their permission. These people have nothing to gain be ripping you off and installing more spyware on your computers. Their concern is to eliminate spyware and it's associated sleazy programs.

To learn about who the good guys are one can Google using terms like "anti spyware program ratings reviews," or "anti spyware forums." Or, you can ask for help on forums like this and perhaps somebody who is on the inside and involved in the fight will pass along some recommendations ... like go to www.spywareinfo.com and learn as much as you can on that website.

There is a website that identifies "Rogue Anti-Spyware Programs" at: www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Rogue programs use false positives to trick you into paying for what can be accomplished with freeware programs. Follow all the links and you will see which programs are actually able to live up to the claim of being spyware removal tools.

There are forums on both of these websites where volunteers assist individuals with cleansing spyware from their computers. Anybody who recommends these websites to those seeking legitimate help is doing you a favor. Anybody who receives help from the resources there might want to donate something to their cause. You can also signup for the free Spywareinfo Newsletter.
www.castlecops.com has great forums where people can get help removing all manner of malware.

IHTH ... Wiz

[This message was edited by Wiz Feinberg on 23 August 2005 at 11:50 PM.]

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

Thanks Wiz.This info is a big help.I have Norton 2005,Spybot S+D and Ad Aware and they get most of the critters.
I still have a ton of extraneous back up files and adware regenerators to ferrit out also about 60 running processes to weed through.
Seems like I got most of this junk from opening what appeared to be a ligit question from an eBay member.It looked exactly like all other questions from members who use the "ask seller a question" option.

Tony Palmer · From: St Augustine,FL

Hi Mark,
I experienced a TON of incessant popups awhile ago and nothing I used would stop them, including all of the above.
Finally, I un-installed AOL 9.0 security edition and went back to 9.0 optimized and haven't had one problem since then!

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I don't really trust Microsoft.

Forum Index > Computers		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: