Security

[Travlur]

I recently entered a game site just to see what it was about. They asked for some info, absolutely nothing personal or private like AD or email
address etc. They had a chat forum, that I looked at some of the comments
and left. They now have my domain AD, of course the servers AD, but what
bothers me most, they even have my computer name, the one my ISP gave me when I signed up. What else could they have got. Did I send some sort of
signal, that exposed my private info programmed in my PC.
The only info I gave is what kind of games I enjoy. "Thats it."
How is that possible?
How can I prevent that from happening?
Is it possible to establish one way communication? Like, I can browse what
they have to offer, but they cannot get one iota of info about me. Like
"zip", "nothing" or to put it plainly "SFA".

[mjc]

Go through the security options in your browser, turn off cokies, disable scripting and be prepared for alot of things on the net not to work or to be very difficult to do. The same kind of things that provide all the "eye candy" are also the security "holes". There are also some nasty tricks that some sites like to play...like installing an ActiveX applet or other script that reads your hd and displays it so it looks like it is part of the webpage you are visiting...but it is only on your computer, no data gets transmitted, all sorts of other things too like "no-kill" popups, regenerating popups that can not be shutdown in the normal method, "tracking cookies" cookies that are shared across domains (I believe that is one of the biggest complaints about doubleclick).

There are all sorts of cookie blockers, popup killers and "anonomizers" that will stop most of this, but even with those some infoe still gets out...the only way to be truly anonymous on the net is to go through a proxy and never give any info to anyone.

Do you realize that everytime you go to the grocery store (unless you pay in cash and even then you still do it), you give out as much if not more info about yourself as your average long seesion on the net (except that you don't give a listing of installed software to anyone), and most of it is more private than what you give out over the net (most stores have video cameras at the registers and these camera record everything and many are also timestamped with each transaction so your picture goes right along with a particular transaction). In today's society leaking personnal information is the norm...even if you ran off to a cabin in the woods and lived like a hermit your still leaking info about yourself...that you are anti-social and may be a potential threat to society.

Lets look at a transaction at the store, you go get your groceries, a bottle of wine and a pack of smokes...go to the checkout counter and whip out your checkbook, write the check and leave...well what info does the store get; a detailed list of your purchases, name, address, phone number, drivers license number and info, Social Security number, bank account number, balance in account (to see if the check is good), and in many cases a picture of you to go along with it.

How about a typical online session (one where you don't go to any e-tailers); the website gets your IP address, computer name, browser and OS info, and maybe what you did there...and that info is given to just about everysite...then on some maybe an email address.

The one area that I haven't touched is "adware" or "spyware"...that is software that you have installed that typically is "free" but has banner ads displayed in it...this kind of software can give out much more info than a typical cookie..it collects info on the ads displayed, actions taken, what software is installed (upto and including everything), in csome cases mouse clicks, frequnecy that a program was run, in some cases very personal info such as name address and phone number. And then it takes all this info and "phones home" with it, clandestinely contacting the ad agency's servers and depositing it there...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[kayofcircles]

LOL..mjc...I feel so much better now. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif I rather liked the whole "Stealth" mode concept. Sigh, ain't reality a bummer?

[YODA74]

From the Day you wereBorn Nothing is private any more, Thank your Liberals half to have there nose stuck in everyone else's buisness.
Couse they can't stand that someone is doing anything behind closed doors without them knowing. oh IMHO

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W/Me (memory eater)
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[This message has been edited by YODA74 (edited 10-22-2001).]