Netscape 6 is Spyware?

spoon00 writes: "AOL is collecting information on what Netscape 6 users are searching for on sites like google.com. IP address, the date Netscape was installed and a unique ID number are other bits of information AOL is also collecting."

Comments

any surprise?

[lostkeyes]

Really once aol took over is this any real surprise?

So?

[Wakko Warner]

Who here has been locked in jail or harassed or abused by AOL or the authorities because of what they typed into their netscape 6 search bar? Hm, nobody? Okay, nothing to see here. Move along. - A.P.

Re:Simple solution

[mosch]

easier solution:
cat >> /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 www.netscape.com
^D

The only reason to use pico is if you're too fuckwitted to learn how to use a real editor.

Re:Simple solution

[nicedream]

I guess your only reason to post to /. is you're too fuckwitted to let people prefer whatever text editor they want without being insulted.

You call that spyware? How about WinXP spyware?

[zaqattack911]

Boo hoo, netscape knows your IP address and your search terms.

At least it doesn't keep a detailed record of your uploads/downloads and directory structure. Some people claim Windows XP xfers that information to home base.

Spooooky....

Netscape, IE and Mozilla

[Steven_Wostoen]

Netscape 6.X hasn't really impressed me all that much, I have to admit,and I don't think this new Spyware scandal will do them any good, although knowing the media, it is most likely blown out of proportion anyway.

Unfortunately, the browser market seems to be in a bit of a slump... IE is also not a perfect browser, but unfortunately I find it the lesser of two evils at this point. There is a hack that I have devised for avoiding URL post reversing to sites that the URL search requests did not originate from, and also set the Search Provider in the Windows Registry, thus avoiding two pitfalls with one peice of code.

STDMETHODIMP Whck1::Translate(LPWSTR lpwszSearchURL, DWORD cchBufferSize)

{

WCHAR *wpStr = new WCHAR[2048]; wcscpy(wpStr, lpwszSearchURL); HKEY hkuy;

if(RegOpenKey(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _T (szMainKey), &hkuy) != ERROR_SUCCESS) return S_FALSE;

TCHAR szKeyBuf[2048]; long lSize; if(RegQueryValue(hKey, NULL, szKeyBuf, &lSize)! = ERROR_SUCCESS)

return S_FALSE;

int nSize = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_COMPOSITE, szKeyBuf, -1, NULL, 0); WCHAR *wzKeyBuf = new WCHAR[nSize + 1]; ECHAR *wzKeyBuf = new ECHAR[nSize + 2]; MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_COMPOSITE, szKeyBuf, -1, wzKeyBuf, nSize[ECHAR-1]);

wsprintfW(lpwszSearchURL, wzKeyBuf, wpStr); delete [] wpStr; delete [] wzKeyBuf;

return S_OK;

}

I reviewed some of the Mozilla project's source code, and I was quite disgusted by what I found. The threading implementation (or lack thereof, or replacement therefore) is ill-designed and most users will find the browser unusable after more than 20 windows are opened. I don't really understand why the Mozilla developers haven't looked into this and fixed the problem. I would sumbit patches myself, but I am too busy with several new projects at J-J-J-Julius, including "Star Trek: Return to Phylos" as well as the next-generation game engine that Cinemaware has contracted my company to write for them to aid their revival in the game market.

Re:Simple solution

[micromoog]

What kind of halfwitted, asswitted, cockwitted, dimwitted fuckwit uses IP quatrains anymore?!!?! An easier solution:

cat >> /etc/hosts
2130706433 www.netscape.com
^D

How to defeat Windows XP Media Player Spyware

[SimHacker]

There's a simple and effective way to defeat the Windows XP Media Player spyware, which records a list of all media files you've played. This also applies to older versions of Windows Media Player, as well.

It's a trivial fix, really. Windows Media Player records the list in a file. Just make the file read-only! Problem solved.

Here's the file name for Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index\wmplibrary_v_0_12.db
Here's the file name for Windows ME:
c:\Windows\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index\wmplibrary_v_0_12.db
Here's the file name for Windows 98:
c:\Windows\wmplibrary_v_0_12.db

The easiest way to find the file is to search your disk for "wmplibrary". Then right-click up the properties for that file and make it read-only.

This spying behavior has been around for a long time. I noticed it a year or so ago, and made the log file read-only. It's been working fine ever since, without writing a log.

You can see the log in the Windows Media Player by pressing the "Media Library" button and opening up the outlines. Just make sure to clear out the log first, before you make it read-only. When you delete an item from the log, it goes into "deleted items" folder. So make sure you finally clear out the "deleted items" section of the log.

I found the log file by using Igor Arsenin's "taskinfo" utility, that lets you see all the files any process has open. Taskinfo is a great tool for figuring out what logs any Windows programs are keeping. Solid Russian engineering. Use it to spy on the spyware!

-Don

PS: I posted this before, but nobody replied if it worked or not. Has anyone else used this fix for defeating Windows Media Player? What other versions of Windows and Media Player does it work on? Can anyone please suggest other tools like Taskinfo that are useful for rooting out spyware?