Party installing viewpoint spyware?. WTF?.

[doublesnapper]

I only use my computer for poker and surfing and I have Zonealarm and all sorts of AV soft and today yahoo anty-spy caught some nasty thing called "viewpoint toolbar" that does all kind of nasty spying and things, according to the anti-spy?.

Is party spying on me or I caught that thing somewhere else?.

[AncientPC]

Something else.

[detroitplayer]

IIRC, you get some sort of viewpoint software when you download AOL instant messenger. However, I don't think it was called a "toolbar".

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
I only use my computer for poker and surfing and I have Zonealarm and all sorts of AV soft and today yahoo anty-spy caught some nasty thing called "viewpoint toolbar" that does all kind of nasty spying and things, according to the anti-spy?.

Is party spying on me or I caught that thing somewhere else?.

[/ QUOTE ]
Think about this.

If you were Party, would you intentionally download something to your customers that would be recognized by common anti-spyware? They control the entire client program and can do anything they want without you detecting them. Why would they possibly resort to something so stupid?

And if they did it anyway, don't you think it would be all over the Zoo by now?

Looks like you surfed someplace you shouldn't have.

[BradleyT]

It was probably from a webpage.

No, you do not have to download anything from a page to get infected (damn Active-X controls).

[Sifmole]

This showed up on my computer yesterday as well --

Talking with my wife I think she clicked some MyPoints offer and that is how it got installed. Did you do something like this? did someone else in the house possibly do something like this?

[jedi]

[ QUOTE ]
It was probably from a webpage.

No, you do not have to download anything from a page to get infected (damn Active-X controls).

[/ QUOTE ]

It's for this reason that I turn Active-X off.

[AncientPC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It was probably from a webpage.

No, you do not have to download anything from a page to get infected (damn Active-X controls).

[/ QUOTE ]

It's for this reason that I turn Active-X off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Does ActiveX even have a purpose? I remember IE introducing it a long time ago and the only time I hear about ActiveX is when they're patching it. I don't think any major sites actually use ActiveX applets either.

[direwolf5]

It's for this reason, and many others, that I don't use IE. Firefox is a much better alternative.

I prefer my browser to NOT be integrated with the OS.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Does ActiveX even have a purpose? I remember IE introducing it a long time ago and the only time I hear about ActiveX is when they're patching it. I don't think any major sites actually use ActiveX applets either.

[/ QUOTE ]

ActiveX is the third (or so) name that MS gave to essentially the same technology (the first two were OLE Objects and COM Objects). The idea was that instead of having complex Web pages with lots of scripts and servlets behind 'em, you would just download a black box "control" that would do all the work. The advantage was that this control wouldn't be constrained by all the silly little limitations that java applets had to operate under. It could talk directly to the OS and/or the HD to get stuff done. Of course, the downside is that you are now forced to trust that it really does (and only does) whatever the author of the control says it does. Most people didn't like that idea, and Java began pushing ActiveX out.

Why do I know all this? Because in the early 90s, I bet my company on ActiveX (and MS) blowing Java away due to the increased functionality (and marketing muscle of MS). That's why I'm here playing poker with you guys instead of sipping martinis on Bill's yacht.