Gerry O said:
I have used ad-aware from lavasoft.com for awhile on my computer now
but have recently noticed that it causes my computer to lockup, even
when I'm not running it. It also causes me to get an error in IE that
shuts IE down. I also read a post, where someone said that it acts
like spyware itself because it reads your drive and sends the
information back to the swedish guy that makes the software and that
he doesn't have a swedish domain (.se) but only a german domain (.de)
because he's doing some fishy stuff with users computers. I tend to
not trust companies outside the US because that's where all the
trojans, viruses, and other bad stuff come from. Has anyone else had
simillar problems.
Gerry
Well I've been using the various versions of Lavasoft's ad-aware for a
long time (ever since Steve Gibson's Opt-Out expired,which
proved the worth of such software by resurrecting a crashing -
ad-assassinated IE).
Apart from the odd update detecting the odd false-positive
(which were easy to spot anyway)
I've had no trouble whatsoever from it.
It's far more likely that some malware you've installed has screwed up IE.
(I guess it's possible you've acquired some new nasty that detects if you
install or run Ad-Aware and enacts a twisted form of retribution)
I use a firewall and no program has permission to connect out automatically,
Ad-Aware has NEVER triggered an outgoing alert, except as expected when
I tell it to update.
Since it was about time I updated Ad-aware I just did so while running a packet
sniffer - no personal information and nothing read from my drive was sent out,
Just a request for the update - nothing suspicious or the least bit scaly to be seen at all.
(You could do this yourself, it isn't rocket science you know).
While 1 or even 100,000 negative packet logs can't prove innocence, I find the
whole idea that a respected company like Lavasoft would include spyware in
their leading anti-spyware program, almost as ludicrous as the idea that they
might get away with it. When it was caught out it would be the kiss of death.
Incidentally it's Lavasoft.de or LavasoftUSA.com among others, but
NOT Lavasoft.com
You can avoid most spyware by reading the EULA, tedious I know
perhaps we need an EULA scanning program that looks for typical
spyware EULA phrases