Invisible programs like adware and spyware are monitoring user habits and preferences online. Watch this episode to find out what this could mean for you.
Guests
Mike Waltonen
Mike Waltonen
Mike Waltonen has worked for the University of Minnesota's Academic and Distributed Computing Services (ADCS) since 1999. He is currently a technical consultant and an onsite technician. Mike trains resident hall technicians about how to deal with viruses and spyware that appear on student-owned computers.
Jaideep Srivastava
Jaideep Srivastava
Professor Jaideep Srivastava earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California - Berkeley. As a researcher, educator, consultant, and invited speaker in the areas of data mining, databases, artificial intelligence, and multimedia for over 16 years, Dr. Srivastava continues his active collaboration with the technology industry, both for research and technology transfer. He has supervised 22 Ph.D. dissertations and 40 MS theses, and has authored/co-authored over 170 papers in journals and conferences. He has chaired/co-chaired a number of conferences, and is on the editorial board of many journals. An often-invited participant in technical and technology strategy forums, Dr. Srivastava is an oft-invited speaker at industry, academic and government meetings. He has been involved in the organization of a number of conferences, and serves on the editorial board of various journals. The US federal government has solicited his opinion on computer science research as an expert witness. He also served in an advisory role to the government of India on various software technologies. Between 1999 and 2001 he took a two-year leave, during which he spent time at Amazon.com and at Yodlee Inc. This wide-ranging industry experience has provided him with a unique perspective on the application of various computer science technologies in various kinds of Web-based services. Dr. Srivastava has been elected an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to Computer Science research, and has been appointed aDistinguished Visitor by the IEEE Computer Society. Learn more about Professor Srivastava on his faculty website.
For Your Files
Mike Waltonen, a technology specialist at the University, discussed spyware:
"Spyware is a mode for either presenting ads to you or watching what you've done [with] targeted ads [in the past], or it just uses your habits to provide advertising to other people. Spyware watches what you're doing. It can either look at what pages you've been going to [or] what programs you have on your computer. Sometimes it watches what keys you've typed."
Another term used today was malware. Mike said you could think of it as a type of virus:
"It's a program that uses some mode to get on your computer without any permission [or] without asking. That's usually [what's used] when you go to a Web site and something gets downloaded on you for spyware. They use that to gain entry in your computer and then they'll put some advertising program on there."
Mike said getting rid of adware, malware and spyware is not difficult:
"The easiest way is using pop-up blockers in Web browsers. Another way is using adware programs to scan your computer routinely to see if a program that brings pop-ups on your screen has been installed. There's a multitude of programs out there to remove the spyware. I actually recommend the free ones. The two that I use are Ad-aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I recommend using more than one because one program will find a certain set of [adware, malware or spyware] better than another and the other one will get the ones the first one [misses]. So if you use a couple, you're more guaranteed to get everything."
Professor Jaideep Srivastava noted that cookies are collected as you browse the Web:
"Think of a cookie as a kind of little tag — its actually a little number — and when you visit Amazon's Web site, along with the information they return to you [on] the Web page, they also return this cookie. It's kind of hidden inside the passage and that gets sorted on your computer. The idea behind that is that the next time when you ask another question or you ask for another page, Amazon is able to identify that it is indeed you asking the second question as well."
Links
Mike mentioned Firefox, a Web browser that comes with pop-ups already blocked. You can get it at firefox.com. Two Web tools that Mike recommends can search your computer for spyware and adware. They are Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware. You can get them both at download.com.
Adware
This is a program that displays banners while being run, or reports users habits
or information to third parties.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are created by some Web sites and stored on your
hard drive. Cookies are used so that a Web site can "remember" you the next time you visit it
and present you with a customized page, such as one containing your name.
Data Mining
Data mining is a set of techniques for analyzing data and extracting hidden information from the data for a variety of purposes.
Malware
This is a common name for all kinds of unwanted software such as viruses, worms, trojans, and jokes.
Pop-ups
These are windows that appears on top of (over) the browser window of a Web site
that a user has visited. In contrast to a pop-under ad, which appears behind (in back of)
the browser window, a pop-up is more obtrusive as it covers other windows, particularly the
window that the user is trying to read.
Spyware
This is software that tracks usage and reports it to others, such as advertisers. Usually
the tracking is concealed from the user of the software.