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Spyware in Kazaa, Limewire, Grokster

BigMacMike writes: "The San Francisco Chronicle (via the sfgate.com website) has a story that Kazaa, LimeWire, and others have secretly hidden software in their applications that track users' browsing habits." Not the first time. The corporate response is that they literally didn't know what was in these secondary applications that they were providing to be downloaded and installed alongside their primary program. Believe it if you wish.

2 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. BearShare by MoceanWorker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    another program that gives a user access to the gnutella network comes with 3 spyware programs to spy on users...

    first being Onflow Media Player... it is a Flash-like browser plug-in which displays animations and transmits user behavior information (not further specified) to the Onflow central servers.

    second being SaveNow... SaveNow displays context-related shopping pop-up windows in IE... the context information seems to reside on the client side so that no information has to be transmitted to the central server

    third being New.net, which is an alternative Domain Name Service which allows you to connect to TLDs like .free , .shop, .game and .xxx, etc, etc.... also, as they have to query an alternative DNS to let you access these sites, they will be able to track every visit to new.net-"powered" sites.

    not to mention all of these programs have silent auto-updates...

    why can't we all just use FreeNet? :-\

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    "The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
  2. Re:originally called a trojan by H310iSe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It was in the register (my other regular read who scoops slashdot at least 1/2 the time BTW) - and people above seem to have been missing the point, yes, this is not gator or some other silly thing, it's spyware classified as a trojan by antivirus vendors because, it appears, no-one knows what exactly it does.
    LINKS: - the register article
    zdnet on the trojan
    symantec listing the file as a trojan

    --
    closed minded is as closed minded does