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Anti-Spyware Products Don't Live Up to Promises
John Wells writes "In the December, 2004 issue of PC World, the author of an article titled Poor Defenders concludes that most commercial anti-spyware software is ineffective. In tests using a fresh install of XP and 6 typical spyware infections the commercial software failed to stack up against freeware competitor Spybot Search and Destroy. Four out of seven commercial products failed to remove any of the infections. One product even installed 57 spyware files itself! Conclusion: Use freeware products like Spybot and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal."
I'm curious if there are comparable-quality Freeware/Shareware anti-virus products available? I don't mind paying for a product, but don't like having the product cease to function unless more money is extorted out of me in perpetuity. I'm sick and tired of Symantec shaking me down for subscription updates, and subsequent versions of their products becoming more bloated and inefficient.
I'm curious about Symantec AntiVirus 9. Supposedly it finds spyware & adware too.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
The open source community really needs to rally behind this, I think.
I'd love to see a project that uses community involvment to flag projects and websites as "phishing" or "spyware" related.
It could be integrated into open source projects such as Firefox and Thunderbird so you could be assured that after a few people in the community confirmed that a particular URL or even IP was "phishing" or "spyware" related, it would be disabled in the browser or email client without a blood sample and double confirmation.
I, for one, am sick of helping other people clean their computers of spyware. Many of them become so bogged down they are unusable.
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you really need to go further.
looking for free AV or firewall software I encounterd that MOST has spyware bundled with it. the ONLY apps I feel safe installing are Open Source where I can look to see if there is spyware included.
Freeware software has become the biggest carrier of spyware. many "media players" and other apps have a crapload of spyware in them and I am running into people with claria installed that dont even use the internet but recieved a nice CD with a copy of PC magazine that had some nice free apps on it.
personally, I am making a killing at $50.00 a pop to relatives and friends. i tell them to let others know that I'll do the same to their computer for $100.00 and I'll give them $20.00 for each person they send me.
I now clean about 20 computers a week, all set up in a row in the basement with a 2 day turnaround for them and they have to sign a waiver/disclaimer and pay in cash.
christmas is going to be a great one this year.
so in a way, I really have the spyware makers and microsoft's IE team to thank for the plentiful bounty I have this year.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If I am not mistaken (I use a Mac, so my contact with sypware is largely in removing it from other folks' computers) even the good free programs (adaware, spybot, etc) are closed source. As soon as the makers stop updating them, they become useless, as they can't remove newer spyware.
I've often wondered if it'd be feasible to start an open source spyware zapper project - the scanner wouldn't be too tough to write I don't think, and you could get the community to keep submitting updated definitions for newly found spyware via some sort of wiki-esq mechanism.
Could this work? And if so, could we also make our own anti-virus program while we're at it?
Spyware exists for Mac OS X.
So why don't any Spyware removers exist?
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"Rogue/Suspect" means that these products are of unknown, questionable, or dubious value as anti-spyware protection.
Some of the products listed on this page simply do not provide proven, reliable anti-spyware protection. Others may use unfair, deceptive, high pressure sales tactics and false positives to scare up sales from gullible, confused users. A very few of these products are either associated with known distributors of spyware/adware or have been known to install spyware/adware themselves. Users are advised to rely on anti-spyware applications with deserved reputations for trustworthy performance.
useful link to bookmark
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I work on lots of peoples computers guys. It isn't just mine. I install stuff from the internet just like others have on here but nobody would dare admit it. Sure I have the yahoo messenger, gmail notifier, folding@home, weatherbug, etc on mine. It isn't that uncommon guys. Get off the high horse. The spyware tools are what I put on other peoples computers when I work on them in my spare time. I also have to use IE at work to be like the customers we have when I troubleshoot our program. I'm tech support. Sheesh. I swear the people on here with their high horses and arrogant assumptions. Do I have to post my whole damn life story to keep people from filling in the blanks with ?
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