Hi Mark!
I know that we both receive the Fred Langa newsletter, but for the edification of everyone I thought I would pass this on from the 9/23/02 edition regarding "Spybot." Doug
"And "Spybot Search and Destroy" is good, too, although it tends to over-report, treating some harmless (or nearly so) items as if they were major threats.
For example, any part of your system that keeps a record of your past activity--- including helpful lists of "most recently used/opened" files and such--- is reported as a possible spyware issue. While it's true that this info can theoretically be used for tracking, for the most part it's just plain useful. For example, if you open your word processor, the list of files you recently worked actually helps you get back to your previous work more easily. Yet SpyBot reports things like this on an equal footing with true spyware and malicious cookies. Because of this, I think a lot of users will be needlessly alarmed by some of what Spybot initially reports--- their systems will seem to be cesspits of spyware, when in fact many of the reported items will actually be quite harmless.
That said, Spybot can be a useful tool, as long as you read its reports thoroughly, item by item, and don't automatically assume that everything it finds truly is spyware in need of immediate removal. <g> In fact, when you see essentially harmless items detected as spy threats, you can tell SpyBot not to warn you about them in the future--- a good idea."
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