Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: 5F6-A on August 22, 2015, 08:55:13 PM
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After recommendation from a computer savvy ICT guy at work, I installed a spyware software to keep my laptop in tiptop condition.
I ran the programme to scan the laptop (took aprox. 30 mins) and presto!, it detected about 50 tracking cookies or something like that (stuff that kinds of track your internet activity, I think).
Programme prompted me to delete them. I did and said goodbye to all "tracking" spyware bits.
I used the computer for a couple of hours going on the internet for things like my University website, youtube,... all "safe" places.
I ran the scan again and now the programme found another 40 or so conflicts.
What's going on? Surely I cannot have another 40 pieces of spyware if I have just got rid of them?
What do you think, guys??
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I would guess false positives, but I don't know anything about computers :laugh:
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What programme are you running ? I use Malwarebytes these days - free and effective.
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If you're worried about tracking cookies, I wouldn't expect places like youtube to be "safe" !
In most cases, tracking cookies are a low threat and enable sites to offer you what they'd think of as a "richer" experience. Whether you think of that as richer or not is up to you(!) Eg - youtube and other sites invariably display adverts offering me products (shoes, whatever) that I was browsing in the past.
However, a tracking cookie (or the results it gives) could be used for nefarious purposes. So a Spyware program is going to regard ALL tracking cookies as a potential threat unless you tell it otherwise.
I used to worry about this stuff (I used Spybot Search and Destroy for many years). But the scans etc were taking longer and longer as the database of threats got bigger, and the resident shielding programs were using up resources and slowing the machine down. And in all the years I was doing it, alongside all the tracking cookies, SSD only found and fixed 1 or 2 things that I considered as "hey! who put this sh1t on my machine??!"
In the end I decided to stop worrying and got rid of all the "extra" protection on my PC and laptop. I'm on Win 8.1, I use the Windows firewall (there's already a perfectly good firewall in your router anyway unless you're doing seriously dangerous browsing), and Windows Defender for virus/spyware protection. No problems at all, and the thing runs a lot quicker.
I tend to look at it this way now:
Q: Why do I have a computer?
a) Just to run a bunch of security programs to protect my computer
OR
b) To do stuff like browsing, emailing, word-processing etc...
You can so easily get sucked into a)! :grin: :grin:
You need some protection, but your router's firewall and Window's Firewall and Defender are pretty much good enough for my internet behaviour.
An additional dedicated spyware program is possibly a good idea - but it depends how much of your own time and effort you want to put into running it, understanding what's happening, and (if possible) training it to do what you want.
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^^ What Andy said
The missus had "a friend who knows about computers" install a bunch of spyware, anti virus stuff etc.
Its such a pain in the arse. The pop ups are annoying, she doesn't always know what they mean, and also I'm sure they are slowing the machine down.
I used to use Adaware which I liked because it wasn't too obtrusive.
I also used to use Norton anti-virus which I liked until it went wrong for seemingly no reason.
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This is common with Spyware programs. As Dave MC says - false positives - I wouldn't worry about it.
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If you're a chrome user you can actually turn popup blocker on and it will also stop adverts on Youtube, handy tool!
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My rules to deal with this (on PC) are different.
1. Use a good antivirus programme. You can get them with built-in browser protections too (Avast I think; I currently use Avira on PC though).
2. Firefox browser with Adblock edge and Ghostery installed - most of the unwanted cookies, popups and ads never get even reaches you.
3. No Adobe products! Sumatra PDF works just as good and Flash is unnecessary. No more annoying updates and security leaks! I can gladly do without the odd old Facebook video not playing.
4. Don't visit websites that would embarass you if your mother found out! :-) In all honesty though, everything is tracked and recorded nowadays, as a result I have been using the internet less and less and just for the usual, boring stuff (Amazon, Youtube, guitar forums...).