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Gator Examined
Ben Perry writes "News.com.com has a story about a Harvard researcher's study on how Gator operates. The report 'provides some data as to how much advertising Gator is showing and to whom it is targeted' and focuses on where Gator replaces a site's ads with Gator's ads. Gator is facing several lawsuits because of this technique."
I've been using Gator for about 3 years, and I am happy with it. I put *.gator.com in Proxomitron block file, and I don't see any ads, none at all. Gator's password saving and form filling features are not perfect, but at least acceptable. My only complaint is a relatively large memory footprint.
Gator? Ohhh.. you mean one of those things my Privoxy and Squid combo block?
Trolling is a art,
I'd really like to know how effectual advertising via annoying popups really can be. I mean I thought it was proven that internet advertising doesn't work. Right now I'm reading slashdot with ads all over it, unless I'm looking right at them I'll never even think twice about them.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Spybot seems a bit more comprehensive and user friendly than Adaware, but to be sure I run both. :-)
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
"Eagle contends that advertisers are only permitted to target groups of sites, not individual Web sites. But on Tuesday, after being alerted to the existence of the Berkman study, Gator deleted marketing materials from its Web site that suggested otherwise. The deleted Web page, which had existed since at least February 2002, had promised: 'Gator can pop up your advertising or promotional message anywhere--even at a competitor's site.'" The beauty of the web is that they can delete whatever pages they'd like and archive.org still has them cached and readily available for viewing by the people they tried to keep in the dark.
It's a program that automatically fills out web forms for you. I'm surprised anyone at all has downloaded it, since I find autocompletion the most annoying thing a web browser can do. They have a bunch of other programs now too, but they all carry the same type of spyware.
Its a reference to a quick little story about a group of blind people that meet an elephant. Each describes the elephant based upon the part they are touching.
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Unless I missed something...
We have had dumbasses within our company install Gator, and it generates pop-ups on our intranet pages as well, not just "targeted" domains.
I didn't seem to see anything in there that covered that.
Internet Options->Security->Custom level.
Tick disable rather than prompt for 'download signed activx controls'.
You could add gator to the restricted zone while your there.
I.O.U One Sig.
I found adaware didn't work too well through the ISP/Employer's proxy. It told me I had ads but it didn't stop them.
/etc depending on your op sys. hosts.sam is a sample file and needs renaming to "hosts" (ie no .sam, to work.
the "hosts" file is in your windows dir or maybe in
127.0.0.1 is local host ie your computer
connect blah blah is what I don't want
# thingy is a comment
Ie send requests for what I don't want to my bit bucket.
Sample mod:
127.0.0.1 connect.247media.ads.link4ads.com # 247media.ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 www.24pm-affiliation.com # 24pm-affiliation.com
127.0.0.1 im.800.com # 800.com
127.0.0.1 us.a1.yimg.com # a1.yimg.com
127.0.0.1 view.accendo.com # accendo.com
127.0.0.1 actionsplash.com # actionsplash.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.activeagent.at # activeagent.at
127.0.0.1 primetime.ad.asap-asp.net # ad.asap-asp.net
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
A quick search produced this. Google is your friend.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
Or download spybot search & destroy - its really quite good at getting rid of GAIN and other nasty crap
Google-Watch's allegations have already been debunked many times on Slashdot.
Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038
And Alta-Vista was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2013. So what? I doubt anyone's still going to be using their same computer on either date, and you can delete cookies if you feel like it.
For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration.
They're called server logs, and just about every webserver keeps 'em. Apache and IIS do it by default.
Google won't say why they need this data:
Market research? Improving searches? etc.?
Google hires spooks
Heaven forbid anyone who used to work at CIA/NSA from making a living after they leave!!! Anyways, it's not like a security clearance would be useful for, say, running the intranet search engine at the Pentagon?
Google's toolbar is spyware
Before you install the toolbar Google VERY clearly states that info will be sent to them if you enable the advanced features - it even has "PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY, IT'S NOT THE USUAL YADA YADA" in red letters up the top. I'd say there isn't any better way to disclose what they're doing to users.
Many webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."
There's a clear opt-out process. If it was opt-in, the cache would be essentially useless. As for it being illegal - I'll quote Microdoc News. There have also been complaints that the "Google cache" feature violates copyright, however the consensus seems to be that caching is a normal part of the functionality of the web, and that HTTP provides adequate mechanisms for requesting that caching be disabled (which Google presumably respects; Google also honors the robots.txt file.)
If he tries to take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, he may find himself penalized by Google, and his traffic disappears.
Translation: If they use a weakness in Google's algorithm and Google fixes the algorithm later, they whine about their rankings going down - which were inflated above other, more relevant ones by using a bug!
Talk about sour grapes... IIRC Google-Watch was started when its webmaster lost ranking for another of his sites due to the Google algorithms being changed.
Google is completely unaccountable.
They're a privately held company. They don't have to be accountable, as long as they stay within the law.
Gator along with other spyware has been responsible of 50%-60% of all unresponsive PCs I have had to deal with. It is a no-fun program that should be ranked right next to KLEZ or FunLove (probably even higher).
Last time I checked gator didn't provide an unistall feature. If you were going to get it out of your system you had to hunt it down manually in the filesystem and the registry. Fortunately the folks at Lavasoft provide an excelent cure for non comercial use. Ideally they should integrate their product with a decent AV scanner, and thus offer a truly complete solution.
My other OS is the MCP!
Dearest Bilbo (take Bored of the Rings quotes as read),
the popunder is designed for what is called "drive-by" or "stealth" downloads, which is Gator's preferred method of installation. basically it allows them to get away with installing without permission by having a window popunder (ie. be invisible) with the message "downloading components. click this button to cancel, otherwise you agree to our EULA which grants us the right to root your box and steal all your personal data and sell it on the open market." Basically if you dont click it before the download ends, it installs and you "agree" to the EULA which includes the statement that they reserve the right to re-install spyware applications on your computer for the rest of its service life until you take an axe to it, and that it is illegal to prevent them from doing so. Hope This Helps!
In many cases, it can help to use 0.0.0.0. If you use 127.0.0.1, it tries to connect to your local system and fails about 1 second later*; if you use 0.0.0.0, your TCP/IP stack will generally reject it immediately, so pages will load faster.
* - assuming you aren't running a local webserver - if you are, it'll just give you an instant 404 which is almost as good as using 0.0.0.0 but uses ever so slightly more resources (i.e. your httpd).
* Q
P.S. If you don't get this note, let me know and I'll write you another.
Finally, I think it is inappropriate to classify Gator as "spyware" any longer. I challenge anyone to find an instance where Gator installs itself surreptitiously on a users browser any longer.
Then why do I still see Gator being delivered to end-users via drive-by downloads, then? Granted, they clicked yes on a freaking dialog, but if you polled users, you'd find the vast majority of them did so by mistake.
That makes Gator a petty little company increasing its userbase by taking advantage of user ignorance, in my book.
Go somewhere random
Seems to me that password management software defeats the purpose of having a password. I have a simple password management system that I keep in my brain.
Pick 4 passwords that you will use. The first one keep it easy to remember and use it on all your low level sites such as news webpages.
Next, pick a harder password to use on your login accounts such as unix or isp services. Your third harder password you would use for financial shit such as bank accounts and money management sites.
Your 4th password, should I say passphrase, is what you use to protect shit you don't want anyone reading ever. Such as your pgp pass phrase or such.
The first password is a minor place holder. You should feel free to share it with just about anyone you want to. Second password you share with nobody but maybe your spouse or family members. The third password you might share with 1 or 2 more people, your wife or children when it is relivent. The 4th password you take to your grave with you. You tell no one, not even your spouse.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
He would prefer that searches for, say, "Oliver North", turn up this, rather than this.
Quoting Brandt quoting himself: Regarding his opposition to Google's hegemony, Brandt says, "It feels like the right thing to do. It's the cyber equivalent of my draft resistance days." (see U.S. v. Brandt, 435 F2d 324, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Dec. 4, 1970)
But it was too late - the button was already pressed down, and he - like a suicide bomber waiting to blow up - had only to release his finger.
Unlike a bomb trigger, in Windows you can simply move the mouse cursor away from the focus area of the control before releasing the mouse button if you want to abort the button push.
The best way I have found to combat spyware/virus/etc, is to run Win2K or WinXP and take away administrative privilage for normal users so that things don't get installed unintentionally and virus problems are somewhat contained. Running Win9x is just asking for things like this to happen
Actually acronym is TANSTAAFL which stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.". It's from Robert A. Heinlein's "The moon is a Harsh Mistress" which is an excelent read.
I also recommend Spider Robinson's "The Free Lunch", which is a play on Heinlein's famous line.
Here is a good hosts file.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
127.0.0.1 webpdp.gator.com. 0.1 www.date-manager.com
127.0.0.1 rs.gator.com
127.0.0.1 www.gator.com
127.0.0.1 www.gatorcorporation.com
127.0.0.1 images.gator.com
127.0.0.1 www.gatoradvertisinginformationnetwork.com
127.0
127.0.0.1 www.precision-time.com
127.0.0.1 www.offercompanion.com
127.0.0.1 www.mediapost.com
127.0.0.1 www.date-manager.com
127.0.0.1 www.date-manager.com
127.0.0.1 ss.gator.com
127.0.0.1 bannerserver.gator.com
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.216
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.219
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.210
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.215
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.130
127.0.0.1 64.94.89.142