Freepages-Help-L Archives

Archiver > Freepages-Help > 2001-12 > 1009648041


From: "Robert W Fay" <>
Subject: Re: FTM was Re: [FreeHelp] ZoneAlarm
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 11:47:21 -0600
In-Reply-To: <14d.67a93b9.295f53a6@aol.com>


Joan,
On 29 Dec 2001 at 12:13 someone wrote:
> This is probably getting a bit far afield for this list (sorry Pat) but
> I didn't want to let this statement stand.
Really, it should go to the Virus list

It is "spyware" only in the
> broadest sense of the word, and I've never heard anyone call it a
> "trojan" before.
Nope. Better check the AV sites and the archives of Virus-L and
alt.comp.virus and alt.comp.anti-virus. Its clearly a trojan and that
is widely agreed. If it weren't a trojan, then ZA would not detect it

You are talking about dssagent -- or "broadcast" which
> has only one purpose. I'm not saying that I think this is a *good*
> thing for Broderbund to put in their FTW program but its sole purpose is
> to go out to its "maker" as you put it which is FTW themselves and pick
> up updated "announcements" to place on the splash screen that you see
> when you load the FTW program each time. It is an advertising
> issue--not a spy issue.
Nope. The simple fact is that no one knows exactly what kind of
information it may be gathering and sending back to FTM. It may be
innocuous. It may be malicious. It certainly is spyware because it is
gathering information on you (often without your knowledge...that
really was the intent of my original comment...just to make the poster
aware of that problem) and sending it back to the folks at some company
so they know what you are doing. If you choose to accept the FTM story
that it is for your benefit, that is your choice. Others are not so
naïve.

> If you are not talking about "broadcast" but rather about "aqueduct" --
> it DOES gather information which was used during beta testing (the beta
> testers would send the info in this file to FTW periodically I believe)
> and supposedly they forgot to remove it from the program.
It really doesn't matter what their story is. They are doing it without
the users permission and knowledge and that is SPYWARE that many find
objectionable, unethical, and offensive.

I'm a bit
> skeptical about that because they obviously thought it was important
> enough that the program actually won't *run* if you remove that file,
> but they *have* issued a patch that disables aqueduct by rendering it
> "read only" so that additional info can't be written to that file.
Frankly, I really don't care. These companies try to pull this stuff,
and its easy to put an end to all of it with Zone Alarm or some other
firewall. Then, if you buy into the story that one company or another
sells you about their need to gather personal information on you, you
can enable that one company to perforate the firewall on YOUR terms.

Its real simple to protect yourself.

Bob Fay
>
> Joan
>
>
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Robert W Fay
Sturtevant WI 53177


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