[OT] Are you being tracked online?

[Alzrius]

The big problem is that the real world is actually too dull, you have to do something to spice it up.

Dude, thats just what They want you to think! Don't be fooled, the world is a very, very interesting place...sometimes mysterious, sometimes eerie, sometimes downright terrifying, but never, ever truly dull.

 

[jdavis]

Dude, thats just what They want you to think! Don't be fooled, the world is a very, very interesting place...sometimes mysterious, sometimes eerie, sometimes downright terrifying, but never, ever truly dull.

Oh it's not to dull for me but it is for alot of people. I'm a safety engineer by trade, I like things not to get too exciting.

There is a difference between excitement and global conspiracies are running rampant and the government is putting mind control chemicals in the water.

 

[Horacio]

I'm not a Conspiracy Theory fanatic, nor I see hidden alien agenga behind every government movement, but I'm a Telecommunication Engineer, now preparing a PhD in Temlecommunications, so I understand a bit about networks and software.

And governement conspiracy or not, that spyware is real, those ISP keeping tracks of e-mail are real, thos corporate system adminst tracking all you internet connections are scary real and all kind of people wanting to watch what you do while in the net is real. They can do it out of curiosity (like many hackers), job (like corporate sys admins or intelligence agencies), precaution (like ISP) or simply greed (like companies wanting to know that you visit porn sites to flood you with porn spam hping to lure you into giving them your credit card).

So if you don't do anything wrong AND you don't mind being watched (and spammed), no problem, you're safe. If you either do something wrong (and who has really done NOTHING wrong?) or simply don't like to get watched, take some of the suggestion on this thread

 

[jdavis]

I'm not a Conspiracy Theory fanatic, nor I see hidden alien agenga behind every government movement, but I'm a Telecommunication Engineer, now preparing a PhD in Temlecommunications, so I understand a bit about networks and software.

And governement conspiracy or not, that spyware is real, those ISP keeping tracks of e-mail are real, thos corporate system adminst tracking all you internet connections are scary real and all kind of people wanting to watch what you do while in the net is real. They can do it out of curiosity (like many hackers), job (like corporate sys admins or intelligence agencies), precaution (like ISP) or simply greed (like companies wanting to know that you visit porn sites to flood you with porn spam hping to lure you into giving them your credit card).

So if you don't do anything wrong AND you don't mind being watched (and spammed), no problem, you're safe. If you either do something wrong (and who has really done NOTHING wrong?) or simply don't like to get watched, take some of the suggestion on this thread

That's not a conspiracy theory thats just good advice. You don't have to think like a X-files character to protect yourself from spam or from being hacked (I have had credit cards compromised by hackers before).

 

[Horacio]

That's not a conspiracy theory thats just good advice. You don't have to think like a X-files character to protect yourself from spam or from being hacked (I have had credit cards compromised by hackers before).

Yup, that's my point, there are enough people 'out there' wanting to know data about you, even if you're the most innocent internet user, so a bit of self protection (and some anti spyware software, and maybe a free simple firewall) are good advices

 

[tarchon]

What program is that? And is it free?

XP has one built in. I believe it's turned on by default, though I don't know how strict the settings are.
Personally, I don't think they're usually that important, but it depends on how you're connected, what you're connected with (OS and applications), how important (or private) your data is, and so on. I also would lean toward a firewall for users that are less familiar with basic security precautions. Probably all SMB traffic should be blocked unless you really know what you're doing, for example.
I've probably had more grief from firewalls hosing up network applications and frustrating legitimate communications than I've gotten benefits from them, but my computing needs are often unusual and firewalls have gotten better over the years.
My experience with virus scanners is about the same; I've never had a virus infection on one of my PCs (plenty of virus code, but I have other means of keeping the program counter away from it), but I can name several occasions when a virus scanner interfered with my software significantly. For some reason, many system administrators have a hard time getting it through their heads that real-time controls and virus scanners seldom coexist happily.

 

[The Sigil]

strangely, the F-microsoft site shows destination unreachable when I ping it, google finds it, but I cannot get to anything except cached pages...

This is a well-known effect, usually known as:

"The site has been slashdotted..."

or

"The site has been /.ed..."

This comes from the phenomenon that occurs when a small-time site is linked to from slashdot.org, the sudden demand for bandwidth (from all the readers jumping to the site) brings down the server.

First time I've ever seen anything "enworlded" though... ;-)

--The Sigil

 

[Seaver]

I agree with that. A lot of them were from a stupid thing I downloaded, Bonzobuddy or somesuch. Was this ape that followed you around and crap. Uninstalled it like 10 mintues after I had it. Didn't know it left so much spy stuff behind.

Heh, Bonzai Buddy. Yeah we had a run in with that. Our intern thought it was cute an installed it on her machine there at work. We (the rest of the development team) didn't know what she had done until we started to hear the cursing.

She got sick of that purple monkey and decided to try and remove it herself and ended up totally hosing her machine. The sys admin, myself, and the other programmer saw what she had done and just bust up laughing.

Eventually we did a full reinstall to fix the damage done both by her and the evil monkey...it was just easier that way.

What killed us was that she was a MIS major yet still pretty ignorant when it came to computers and the internet and what lurks out in the digital depths. A/S/L anyone? *shudder*

It wasn't all bad though, she ended up getting a foot tall, fuzzy, purple ape stuffed animal thing that looks just like Bonzai. I just couldn't resist buying it for her. The physical abuse from that one was worth the laughs.

BTW by ignorant I really do mean just a lack of knowledge, just realized this may look like a slam on Dragongirl which isn't the intent.

Oh and back on topic...On one of my machines everytime I pull up IE a popup appears. No specific ad really. Sometimes its for gambling, other times for actual products. Anyway the pop up is linked to IE opening, not to a specific site. I'm having a hell of a time tracking down what this stupid thing is.

 

[Psionicist]

Best thread ever. Someone (I don't give a rats who) post a link to this site, "f---microsoft.com", about something that's so obviously fake I cannot imagine anyone to actually believe it. Then all of you take this "facts" as granted just because it's about the "evil corporation". Does this site show any actual proof? Any evidence at all except this "mysterious" file? This is spooky. Do you believe everything that newspapers says too? Or spam emails, about the enlarge-your-dookie-pills? Or what f----mcdonalds.com writes? I have only one word for this, or four words:

You guys are naive.

EDIT - no offense, but your point can be made without the overt circumnavigation of the profanity filter, Psionicist.
Henry

 

[Castellan]

Then all of you take this "facts" as granted just because it's about the "evil corporation".

I agree that it's a sorry thing when people believe these kinds of claims about Microsoft. But I don't agree with your reasoning for why.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, they've followed a path that leads people to believe this kind of thing because (quite frankly) it's usually true. Granted, this claim might not have supporting evidence, but there's enough other evidence about past infractions that this one's likelihood is that much greater.

Put it in gaming terms (obligatory D&D reference follows). You've got a "villain" in your game who's performed all kinds of atrocities in his career. The PCs are out to get him, and in the course of their adventures he continually treads on the weak. One day, the PCs enter a town and hear a story about him doing something evil. They didn't witness it, but it sure sounds like something he'd do. Do your players stop the messenger and say, "Now hold on, buddy! You don't even have any evidence that he did that. How can you say such a thing without proof?" In all likelihood, your PCs will believe the story without question.

If, every day, you hold a rock out at arm's length and drop it, and observe that it falls to the ground, at some point, when someone tells you that they let go of an object and it fell, you'll believe it because you've seen it so many times. If you want to be technical, from a scientific standpoint, there's no guarantee that that object will fall. But we've observed that behavior for so long, we take it for granted.

The situation here is no different.