please don't destroy my computer

[Bill Sanderson]

I'm with A McGuire. I pretty much ignore cookies.

Yes, I do blow them away when Adaware or Spybot Search & Destroy flags them,
but I don't otherwise restrict them via the IE settings--too much effort for
no particular return.

I scan with those tools less often than once a week. I scan with Microsoft
Antispyware daily. If they add cookies to the scanning routines, I will
probably leave that feature enabled, because adware related cookies don't do
me any particular good, even though I don't think them particularly harmful
either. OTOH, if it blows away cookies that do useful work for me, I'll
turn it off quickly.

(Microsoft Antispyware will be free--Bill Gates, 2/15/2005 RSA conference
webcast by Security360)

--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

I think that would be a stretch of the imagination - the probably don't
remove your cookies because it's simply next to impossible to detect
which ones you want or which ones you don't want. Cookies simply are not
harmful - they are 1K text files that keep certain information about my
visit to a site so I don't have to continually remember it - and so they
remember me. If cookie detection were part of a newer release, I would
hope I can disable this. I will clean them up manually.

I dont want any "Ad Big Brother" who tracks me.

Latest removal with Ad-aware.

ArchiveData(auto-quarantine- 2005-02-09 12-32-37.bckp)
Referencefile : SE1R27 05.02.2005
======================================================

TRACKING COOKIE
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
@servedby.netshelter.net/
@jnova.cjt1.net/HTM/721/0
@versiontracker.com/
@advertising[2].txt
@atdmt[2].txt
@CGI-bin[1].txt
@doubleclick[1].txt
@mediaplex[1].txt
@servedby.advertising[1].txt
@tradedoubler[2].txt
@ads.x10[1].txt
@adtech[2].txt
@advertising[1].txt
@adx.adhostcenter[2].txt
@as1.falkag[2].txt
@atdmt[2].txt
@CGI-bin[2].txt
@CGI-bin[3].txt
@doubleclick[1].txt
@gator[1].txt
@instadia[1].txt
@n3sport.adhostcenter[2].txt
@serving-sys[2].txt
@specificclick[1].txt
@statcounter[2].txt
@tradedoubler[2].txt
@tribalfusion[2].txt
@valueclick[1].txt
@ad-logics[1].txt
@ads.pointroll[1].txt

 

[Elaine]

(Microsoft Antispyware will be free--Bill Gates, 2/15/2005 RSA
conference webcast by Security360)

At the rate they're going it will be a long time before it's worth even
that.

 

[plun]

I'm with A McGuire. I pretty much ignore cookies.

Yes, I do blow them away when Adaware or Spybot Search & Destroy flags them,
but I don't otherwise restrict them via the IE settings--too much effort for
no particular return.

I scan with those tools less often than once a week. I scan with Microsoft
Antispyware daily. If they add cookies to the scanning routines, I will
probably leave that feature enabled, because adware related cookies don't do
me any particular good, even though I don't think them particularly harmful
either. OTOH, if it blows away cookies that do useful work for me, I'll
turn it off quickly.

(Microsoft Antispyware will be free--Bill Gates, 2/15/2005 RSA conference
webcast by Security360)

Lavasoft explains it in this way. It´s about privacy and a
easy way to remove cookies.
IMHO this is good.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

"TAC - Tracking Cookie

TAC Level: 3

A tracking cookie is data stored on your computer in the
form of a cookie and is shared between two or more websites
to enable them to track your movements across the web. This
will help them gather information about your interests and
tailor special marketing for you and gather statistics when
visiting their sites. While these tracking cookies are NOT
in any way harmful for your computer you might feel they are
an intrusion to your privacy. Ad-Aware supplies you with the
ability to remove these tracking cookies if you wish to do so.

For Ad-Aware SE Plus and Ad-Aware SE Professional, Ad-Watch
can be configured to block tracking cookies. In the Options
screen in Ad-Watch check "Block tracking cookies" and
Ad-Watch will block tracking cookies before entering your
computer."

--

 

[al]

any questions? --- Friend or foe?

Einstein questioned Issac Newton's laws of motion, in
light of certain experimental observations regarding the
velocity of light, and he came up with relativity theory.
He did not attack or refute the Laws of Motion, which are
still valid. He just questioned, and amended them, to take
into account that light travels at a constant velocity,
relative to any observer.

Yes, it's a semantics game. Yes, I like it.

My original question was: Is it possible that the "Tracks
Eraser" doesn't work on my computer because I'm running a
Spanish version of Windows on a system which is otherwise
all English? The question has been answered

"There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately
useless"-- Jorge Luis Borges

Finally, if you're questioning the funcionality of my
brain, I need all the help I can get.
If you're attacking, --- Eat it.

 

[John]

Glad you got your answer friend!

I haven't had brains for breakfast in a long time.

 

[A McGuire]

I'm a web developer, and I use cookies for our Intranet (session variables,
which are cookies). I think what they are describing are cookies designed
to "gather statistics when visiting their sites", which is much different
than the type I use as a programmer. How do you differentiate? Again, as
Bill put it, I've never been bothered by a cookie. They are merely text
files that I actually rely on so my frequently visited sites can remember
me.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I think that's a fair description. The rub (for Microsoft) may be in
figuring out which specific cookies are the "bad" ones. As A McQuire
mentions, most cookies perform useful functions that you probably want done.

Microsoft has some very sticky legal issues to handle--ones that probably
Ad-aware and Spybot Search & destroy can evade. They absolutely have to be
even-handed in their treatment of vendors of software for their platform.
And ads in software, and even ad-supported software, are not things they
find a problem with.

So--cookies are too broad a class to do in willy nilly.

Tracking cookies, even, if they relate to sites you choose to visit, and
aren't related to specific PII (personally identifying information) are
probably OK with you.

I don't know how they'll settle this. There's no reason you can't keep
right on useing the other apps that you now use for this purpose, though.

 

[Guest]

Try the restaurant, "Flor de Oaxaca" in Oaxaca, Mexico.
They once had Brains& Eggs on the menu (Sesos y Huevos)

 

[A McGuire]

You bring up a great point - you can already manage cookies separate (first
party separately from third party, as well as session variables/cookies).
If people want control over the cookies that get written to their system, be
proactive (block BEFORE they get on your system) rather than reactive (allow
AntiSpyware to find it after it's there).

Thanks,
A McGuire

 

[Yippy]

I've seen an odd option of cookies being deleted in a XP
Corp version computer. There were two other options
under Advance Tools in the MS Antispyware tool.
Something Inoculate. I forgot the other. I only glanced
at the computer so I am not sure which computer it was.
On a scan it did detect cookies. I thought that was odd
but only assumed that the program was updated allowing
cookie removal and just felt that I'd have that too if I
reinstalled it back home. That wasn't the case (Even
after a clean install that I was planning on doing
anyways). It seems that XP Pro Corp and XP Pro install
MS Antispyware differently.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Very strange. I don't think there's been a public release of Microsoft
Antispyware which had this feature enabled.

I've heard that in some cases running Microsoft Antispyware on a system
which previously had a trial of Giant Antispyware (the product this one is
based on) uses some Giant code left on the machine, which might have such a
result.