Since I first learned about spyware, AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy have been at the top of my 'must have' program list. One of the functions that I have performed religiously has been to update and run these little jewels on a regular basis.
Just imagine how I felt when I learned the following from a user on one of my Yahoo groups lists. Spybot may be giving in to presure from malware program owners! Don't believe it? Well, I don't know for sure either but why else would this be happening! I have heard rumors, but didn't believe them........
Open your Spybot program and click on the Mode button located next to 'File'. Click 'Advanced', and then click on 'Settings' on the left side menu. Click the 'Ignore Products' icon and scroll through the list of programs. There should be no check marks in the boxes beside the listed programs unless you have previously checked some of them, for what ever reason.
I checked Spybot on both my desktop box and my notebook and here are the results.
In the All Products section, I found check marks by:
MySearch (This is an IE toolbar and a homepage hijacker, according to doxdesk.com)
New.dot net (category, popups)
SideStep (Don't know much about this, but appears to be another toolbar) My question about this one is, why is it listed here with a check mark? And why check marks for the others?
The user that posted the message also found some other things checked, but this was all I found.
So what is going on with Spybot? I scrolled through and unchecked these boxes, updated Spybot, scrolled through again and found them checked again!
Can I trust Spybot? I still use it, but I am wary now!
Until next time,
Martha
Martha's Web
