Or Who Is Looking At Your Computer?
The Problem

Several years ago, right after Windows 95 first appeared on the market, there were a lot of rumors flying around that some software was being written that was able to "Look Around On Your Computer".  Was it true? I don't know for sure, probably so.  What I do know is that true or not it apparently put the seed of thought into some devious minds.  The thought of actually being able to look at the millions of computers in the world, being able to actually look over people's shoulders as they browsed the world wide web, was apparently too much for some people to resist.  What was rumor then is reality now; there are companies writing software that knows what you do.

It is called "AdWare" and is installed by some software to present advertisements within software.  Do you have some software that displays advertising on it?  Software that you got "Free because we use the advertisements to defray our development costs."  Software that "Displays advertisements in an unintrusive manner."  Is it truly as benign as you think it is?  Some of it is; it simply displays random advertisements and does nothing else.  Some of it is more aggressive in its behavior.

The people that write and market this junk justify it by stating that they are using "Targeted" advertisements to present information to internet users that is relevant to their lifestyles and interests.  For example, if a user indicates a strong interest in soccer or ceramic bead collecting they tailor the advertisements presented to him so that they are primarily oriented towards soccer or ceramic bead collecting.  This sounds pretty harmless on the surface, in fact it really doesn't sound that bad.  Advertisements that are all about things I like to do or things I'm interested in actually sounds pretty good.  None of this "Optimize Your Internet Connection!" or "Do You Have Enough Memory?" junk, but ads that might actually mean something to me personally!  But then stop and ask yourself one simple question; How do they know that you like soccer or ceramic bead collecting and are able to present "Targeted" advertisements to you?  Did you tell them?  No?  Well, if you didn't tell them, then HOW THE HELL DO THEY KNOW?

If someone was building a "Profile" on you; what you like to do, where you like to go, how you like to spend your money; don't you think you have a right to know about it?  If your next-door neighbor watched everything you did, took notes on your habits, and then sent them to an advertising company so they could send you "Targeted" advertisements would you appreciate that?  I don't give a damn what anyone says, how they rationalize it to themselves, or how they try and justify it to others, this is NOT RIGHT!  If they tell you they are doing it and you agree to it, that is one thing, but doing it behind your back and never letting you know anything about what is going on is just plain WRONG.
 

Enter GRC!

Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation is one of the individuals who has done an outstanding job of collecting and documenting a lot of this software behavior. I've never met Steve Gibson, never talked to him, don't know him at all, however I freely admit that much of the information on this page came from visiting his site.  If you see something on this page that you like he deserves the credit for it, not me.

Take a look at his OptOut page and decide for yourself whether you want to tolerate this type of software on your computer.  Follow some of the links that he provides, and read about what some of these companies are doing.  While you look at them keep asking yourself the simple question, "How Do They Know What To Send Me?"

I fully agree with everything Mr. Gibson has to say about the subject of AdWare.  These practices are WRONG.  I don't care how the companies rationalize it, or how they justify it, it is wrong.  If you find that you have some software that is "Profiling" you or submitting information about what you do, then get rid of it.  Let the authors know that you have removed it from your machine, and why you have removed it.  Let them know that you will not tolerate this behavior from software.  If their software sales start dwindling because of some AdWare that they are using, then they will stop using it.  If software companies stop using the AdWare plugins, then sooner or later the companies that write it will dry up and go away.
 

But What Can Be Done About It?

There are a several things that you can do:

  1. Just Say NO, or as Steve Gibson puts it, just "Opt Out"!  Companies cannot force you to install their software on your computer, that is something that you choose to do.  Remove it from your system and find something that is better behaved.
     
  2. Run a firewall.  This may be able to prevent any information getting back to the originator if the data stream to the AdWare client is spawned as a separate application.  If it is embedded in the program that you are using, and that particular program actually does need to connect to the internet, this may not work.  Either way a firewall is a good idea, and in myopinion absolutely essential if you have an "Always On" internet connection such as cable.  If you already have a firewall and want to see how efficient it is take at look at Gibson Research Corporation's Shields UP! testing page.  Run through some of the tests and see how well your firewall fares.  Some of them aren't as good as the sellers would like to claim.
     
  3. Tell the software developers that you won't tolerate this behavior and won't use their software until they decide to do something about it.  These bottom-feeding slime-sucking AdWare clowns are selling a service to software developers, and the software developers are selling software to the consumers.  If enough consumers refuse to purchase the software because of its actions, the developers will be forced into removing the AdWare crap.  If enough developers stop using the AdWare garbage, that market will dry up.
     
  4. Spread the word!  There are millions of internet users out there, and very few of them have any idea what is going on behind their backs.  If you tell two people and those people tell two people, and so on, and so on, and so on.
If you want to go with Option 2 take a look at ZoneAlarm.  This is a slick little firewall that is very unintrusive as far as system load goes.  I ran it on a 133mHz machine for a while and hardly even noticed that it was running.  ZoneAlarm comes in a couple of flavors, a Free version and a "Pro" version.  The Pro version costs about $40 and has more features than the Free version (you'd expect something for your money!) but the Free version does a fantastic job and you can prevent ANY application from sending data out to the internet or anyone on the internet banging on your computer.

If you want to actually watch what is flying back and forth through your network cable, take a look at CommView from Tamos Software.  You can buy it for home use for $99 or use the evaluation version for 30 days free of charge.  This software monitors every packet that is transmitted across your network, and will show you what the packet contains, where it is going, and where it came from.  You have lots of control over what is monitored so you can filter unwanted protocols.  I haven't tried it with a modem connection, however the web page states that it does work with dial-up adapters, so I suspect it will work just fine.

Another option in the network analyzer arena is the Anasil software from Sniff-Tech.  I haven't personally tried this software, however the information on their web site makes it look impressive.

Keep in mind ....

Keep in mind that just because software displays advertisements doesn't automatically mean it's bad.  Some of it is tolerable because it simply displays random advertisements and doesn't send anything back to the originator to "Target" the advertising to your personality.  If, however, you start to see advertisements that tend to relate to things that you like to do or web sites that you have visited, or if the documentation mentions anything about "Personalized" or "Targeted" advertisements I would be very wary of what it is doing.  It software is displaying advertisements that are "Personalized" and you didn't tell it what you like to do, then just keep asking yourself, "How Does It Know?"

 
Links ....
 
GRC Home Page Gibson Research Corporation web site, and home of Steve Gibson.  Lots of information about computer security, AdWare, and other items of interest that every internet user should be aware of.
Zone Labs Zone Labs distributes the ZoneAlarm firewall.  If you have an "Always On" internet connection, you really should have this on your computer.  If you use a dial-up connection it still isn't to resource-intensive to leave running all the time.
Tamos Software Distributor of the CommView packet sniffer.  Try the 30-day evaluation version and I think you'll be amazed at some of the things bouncing around your network.
Sniff-Tech Distributor of the Anasil network analyzer.  They also have a demo version available for download.
LavaSoft LavaSoft distributes, among other things, a freeware utility named Ad-Aware.  This utility will look at your system and will display information about what AdWare applications are on it or have been on it and left pieces of themselves.  It will also give you the option of removing them from your system (this option should be used with care since some applications will refuse to work properly if their AdWare components are removed).
Copyright © 1997-2009, Scott A. Craig, All Rights Reserved