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| Is Your Computer Talking To Strangers? |
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Featured Articles January 2002 • Vol.13 Issue 1 Page(s) 48-51 in print issue |
Is Your Computer Talking To Strangers? Protect Your Privacy With Antitracking Software | ||
 Internet privacy is in the headlines almost daily. It seems the World Wide Web resembles MAD magazine's comic strip "Spy vs. Spy." For those of you who didn't grow up reading MAD, the strip told of two spies, one in black the other in white. Each month they battled each other, going to outrageous lengths to do the other in. It wasn't clear whether the spy in white was the good guy, because he was just as bad as the spy in black. Such are the technologies used to secretly track your activity on the Internet. On one side are the Internet companies that have developed various ways to track your Web activities; opposing these technologies are an emerging cadre of ad-blockers and antitracking technologies designed to defeat the trackers. Among the more controversial group of technologies are programs installed on your computer, sometimes without your knowledge, which report back to third parties. Many of these trackers are bundled with freeware or shareware programs that millions of unsuspecting Web users download.
 No Free Lunch Some of the more popular shareware and freeware applications bundle tracker programs. Some programs warn you that they install third-party software on your computer along with the download, but others don't. If you accept the license agreement, usually one of the first screens of the program, without reading the fine print, you may not know the program installs additional software. Even if you do read the entire agreement, it's not always clear what the additional programs do. Some trackers, such as Cydoor, are independent EXE (executable) programs. According to Cydoor's online documentation, " . . . our component, CD_Load.exe runs in the background. It waits until it identifies that a connection to the Internet has been made and then contacts our server." A program, such as Cydoor, tracks your online activity even if you're not using the freeware program that installed it. You can protect your system from third-party trackers. First, visit a couple of the Web sites that compile lists of software that load spyware on your system. SpyChecker (http://www.spychecker.com), for instance, lists shareware and freeware that include tracker software in the download. Search the database of nearly 1,000 titles before downloading an application to be sure you're not getting more than you wanted. The Spyware Infested Software List (http://www.infoforce.qc.ca/spyware/enknownlistfrm.html) simply states the software and the suspected spyware it loads on your system. To give you an idea of the type of trackers that free downloads contain, we downloaded and installed KaZaA, the popular file sharing application. This peer-to-peer program lets users swap audio, video, graphic, and document files with other users of the program. We had no trouble installing KaZaA, and it has a typical screen that displays the software license. If you dig down into this document, KaZaA mentions in legalistic terms that it installs third-party software. It also gives links to Web sites of the different tracker vendors included in the download. After loading KaZaA we installed Lavasoft Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoftUSA.com), ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com), and SpyBlocker Software SpyBlocker (http://www.morelerbe.com/spyblocker); all of which are antitracker programs. The basic personal versions of these programs are free, and most have inexpensive upgrades. Of course, all the commercial virus scanning software developers have, or soon will have, antitracking tools of their own. What these three free programs do in slightly different ways is remove, block, or redirect the tracking software. Zap That Tracker The first antitracker we fired up is Ad-aware. After the program installs, the first screen asks you to check what areas of your computer you want to scan for trackers. Check the Scan Memory, Quick Scan Of Registry, and the Scan Fixed Drive boxes and click the Scan Now button. Depending on the speed of your computer and the size of the hard drive or drives, this operation may take several minutes. The program compares the files it finds on your computer to known tracker programs. You can download the latest profile file from Lavasoft's Web site. When the program finishes the scan, click the Continue button at the bottom of the screen to see a listing of the tracker programs on your computer. Before removing programs, look over the list and put check marks by the items you want to keep on your system. Click the Exclude button, and Ad-aware removes those programs from the list. Now, click the checkboxes for items you'd like to save in a backup file and click the Backup button. Look over the remaining items and put checks in the boxes for anything you want Ad-aware to remove. Click Continue and Ad-aware deletes all the selected items. The best strategy is to check everything and click the Backup button to create a backup file containing everything that Ad-aware will remove. The tracker files and Registry keys are then copied to a backup file but not deleted. If you right-click inside the list, you can use the Check All function from the pop-up menu. You can restore the files you've backed up if a freeware or shareware program stops working. We backed up all files and asked Ad-aware to remove all of the trackers installed along with KaZaA. And, of course, KaZaA stopped working. In this case, you have the choice to restore the trackers and use the freeware or be more protective of your Web activity and forgo using the freeware. With an always-on connection, such as cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), a firewall helps deal with trackers. ZoneAlarm is free (professional version, $20) and one of the more popular personal firewalls. It's easy to install and set up, and it stops communication between the trackers on your PC and the servers collecting information. ZoneAlarm installs easily and walks you through a set of screens explaining the basic features. Then the application sets itself up and configures your computer and Web browser. ZoneAlarm calls itself noisy at first and then quiet. As soon as it finishes installation, you will find out how true this statement is. The first time you use any program that accesses the Internet after installing Zone Alarm, a message pops up and asks if you want to let the program access the Internet. For example, if you started an e-mail program, such as Outlook, your answer will be Yes. But sooner or later, ZoneAlarm will pop up and ask if you want an unknown program to access the Internet. ZoneAlarm does not have a list of tracker programs, so check the program against Ad-ware's list. If the program is a tracker, click No, and ZoneAlarm prevents the program from accessing the Internet. SaveNow appeared when we ran KaZaA. SaveNow monitors your browsing activity and serves up ads, money-saving coupons, and other offers. We prevented SaveNow from accessing the Internet, but that did not stop KaZaA from running. You may want to view the offers that SaveNow presents in exchange for information on your surfing habits, but ZoneAlarm lets you decide. RealPlayer wanted to access the Internet, too. If you deny access, you won't be able to view video or listen to audio content. A workaround to this dilemma is to use ZoneAlarm's Lock feature, which closes off all access to and from your computer and the Internet when you're not surfing. You can configure Zone-Alarm to permit Internet access to selected programs while in Lock mode. This is the most secure setting, because ZoneAlarm stops all communication, except what you have explicitly allowed.
Don't Phone Home Try a program that spoofs trackers into sending collected information to an IP (Internet Protocol) address on your computer so the data never leaves your PC. Spoof applications don't delete or modify trackers; they render trackers ineffective. Because you're not changing anything, you're probably not violating the license agreement of the freeware program, although the tracker companies may not see it that way. SpyBlocker is a popular spoof program; it installs quickly and works as soon as the installation is complete. SpyBlocker adds a list of known trackers to your PC's host file (a file that your browser uses to match up domain names with IP addresses). The computer looks in the host file to find an address before going to the Web address system. When a tracker program looks for the address of the server to which it reports, it instead finds an address for your PC from the host file so the data cannot be sent. SpyBlocker stops communication between third-party Internet servers and most of the known trackers, and it traps Web Bugs. Web Bugs are invisible 1 pixel x 1 pixel graphics placed on Web pages to track your Web activity. Most banner ads have tracking built in, but at least you can see the banner. SpyBlocker also blocks some pop-up ads and banners. The blocking may prevent some Web pages from loading. Check the Don't Monitor Web Browsing box to prevent SpyBlocker from monitoring your browser. When you check this box, though, SpyBlocker will not block ads or Web Bugs. SpyBlocker's Help file doesn't offer much information; it too a while to figure out some of the optional features. To get to the set up menus, right-click the SpyBlocker icon in the Window's System Tray, which shows a series of pop-up menus. For instance, to see where the blocked ad is on the Web page, click Options on the first menu, then Replacement graphic, and finally choose a color. SpyBlocker substitutes a small graphic in the place of the ads it blocks. This speeds up the load time of many pages containing large ads. A Team Approach Ad-aware, ZoneAlarm, and SpyBlocker help secure your PC (for more programs, see the sidebar, "Additional Freeware Or Shareware"). Each uses a different protection strategy. Ad-aware finds and destroys, but may prevent freeware from working. ZoneAlarm blocks access to the Internet, and SpyBlocker misdirects the collected data. Each is effective; used together they offer better protection than any single one can. Spyware isn't going away because personal Web activity is worth big bucks, but these tools help you control how much and to whom your information is made available.  by Gene and Katie Hamilton
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