internet privacy
Willy Saul Zamler
I got this as part of an email i got from steve gibson... ( who the heck is
he?) foundor of http://grc.com/, a web site dealing with security under
different aspects both technical and social.
i really encourage you to sign up for the monthly free letter, it's 100 5 of
pure usefull information, and no junk email ever, this guy is professional.
Anyways, that posting was sent to several newsgroups, csp.general, computing
and cr280
I thaught of 280 more on the ethnical part of the following problem, and to
the 2 other groups more as a technical/computer related material.
here it comes, if you have any question, email mailto:off...@grc.com
--
Willy Saul Zamler
*******************************************************
*In a World without Limits or Fences, Who needs Windows or Gates?*
*******************************************************
Internet Privacy:
OptOut?
Several weeks ago a scare swept through the Internet community
regarding alleged Internet "spying" being done by a very
popular advertising system known as "Aureate" (now renamed to
"Radiate".) Since the Aureate system is "carried" into the
user's PC by more than 400 popular freeware programs (like
Go!Zilla, GetRight, CuteFTP, and others), and is currently
installed and running in over TWENTY-TWO MILLION PC's!!, the
threat that this software was "spying" on its users was of
great and immediate concern.
My initial analysis of the Aureate system revealed that MUCH
of what had been claimed was completely unfounded. However,
that analysis DID raise enough concern and questions that I
decided to look further...
What I discovered was that this system WAS secretly running as
a "parasite" on your Netscape or Microsoft web browser, using
your browser's Internet connection to communicate with Aureate
servers in the background without the user's knowledge or
explicit permission! This meant that the Aureate software was
running and communicating over the Internet even when the
hosting "carrier" freeware, which brought it into the system,
was not running! This browser "parasite" had also been
implicated in frequent crashes of those browsers. And even
after the "freeware" which brought this parasitic software
into the user's machine had been completely removed, THE
AUREATE SYSTEM REMAINED INSTALLED AND OPERATING SECRETLY!
This was not okay.
A reading of Aureate's developer web site shows that the
freeware authors are receiving payment from the advertisers
in direct proportion to the number of advertisements actually
viewed and the length of time they are shown. In order to do
this, the actaul use of the various programs MUST be monitored
and reported back to Aureate.
This bothered me too.
So ... since I already knew of other similar sounding problems
with "Adbots" being secretly installed in user's machines (The
ZoneAlarm firewall discovered a different one running in my
own machine!), I decided to create an easy-to-use tool to
check for the presence of known "baddies" and -- optionally --
remove them from the computer for the user.
The program is called "OptOut" because it allows users to "opt
out" of the use of unwanted advertising software on their
machines.
I wrote it in 100% assembly language over the past two weeks,
it's a nifty little 32K bytes in size ... and the "Preview
Release" is ready for you to use right now!
Please see the new "OptOut" page on the grc.com web site for
more information and news about Aureate and OptOut. You can
download it from there too...
Kirt Leber
I downloaded it and it passed the virus test, but I'm hesitent to install it. If
it is what it says then great, but if the guy can write in assembly this well,
then he could also probally create a nasty little virus if he wanted to, I
guess.
Jeff Kolesnikowicz
> http://grc.com/optout.htm
This really isn't about privacy, this is pretty darn close to spam. My rule
is, if the characters in a sentance is more than 10% uppercase, classify it
spam. (Hmm...sounds like a good filter rule)
oh...that and the guy's a bit of a sensationalist.
"I believe that people are getting MUCH TOO UPSET by OptOut's reports of the
presence of Aureate/Radiate's advertising software in their computers. So I
need to CLEARLY STATE a few things right now FOR THE RECORD:
I HAVE NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that Aureate (recently renamed to "Radiate"
because it's possible to pronounce) has -- at any time in the past or
present -- transmitted personal information of any sort from the user's
machine. "
but...he's already got us worked up about it...
eeesh.
Greg Eva
(yes, the devils programming language!). But really, just because he
writes in assembler doesn't mean he's going to blow your computer up!
Most people in any of the computer science courses could easily whip
some "nasty little virus" in C or even Visual Basic. What am I trying
to say? Who knows.. I guess I am trying to make you more aware of what
is and what isn't dangerous. So go ahead and install it! :)
Greg