BREAKING NEWS: TSR INSTALLS SPYWARE!
Drakron:
Quote from: Sigmund on 2009 July 22, 21:45:28
You might not consider it spyware, but users who have tried it may not agree.
Just like there are people that brought laptops to play The Sims 3.
Lets go with the dictionary then
Quote
1. Software that secretly gathers information about a person or organization.
2. Any malicious software that is designed to take partial or full control of a computer's operation without the knowledge of its user.
Quote
Regardless of what it's called, a program that needlessly requires to be connected to the internet and installs dubious files onto my system is too close to the "spyware" definition for me.
So far I seen no evidence that FAILshop does either, adding itself to the startup and using Internet connection in order to display announcements is not enough for it to be called spyware and unless you have evidence that it does ... its not.
Also getting malaware is pretty easy, only needs one banner with it embedded on it to get contaminated.
In fact, some years ago the Bethsoft forums ended up with a image file with a embedded virus that proceed to infect everyone that visited the site and I am talking about a reputable software developer (of shitty games) and publisher (of shitty games).
(edit: forgot to write virus ... what a dumbass)
Lerf:
And there have been a lot of complaints recently that many of the third party ads on TSR are apparently themselves infected with viruses and trojans of various sorts. So if these are the ads that the launcher is opening you may be in danger of malicious infection even if TSR itself isn't doing it.
Delphy:
I asked this before on MTS and never got a satisfactory explanation other than Pescado claiming that I do not know how to look at the internals of my PC and figure out what runs on startup, which I can assure you I do.
So, the question is; What, exactly, is this supposed to "install to run on startup"? Becuase I've looked, and I can't find a single thing. Absolutely no evidence of anything TSR related running on startup or otherwise unless I load the TSR workshop, which obviously then gets the ads and latest uploads so on. msconfig shows nothing, and neither does the much more in depth autoruns.
Witchboy:
I agree with Delphy. I've seen no spyware what so ever in this tool. I've scanned before install & after. The tool is not in my user start up & does not load with windows. Though it does connect to the net like the EA launcher & throws TSR updates, links etc when running it.
Ambular:
According to jfade, who says he also used a packet sniffer to double-check exactly what the thing does, Trend Micro Internet Security is known to throw false positives for a number of programs with similar functionality. He says, and I quote, that the Workshop "accesses TSR to download an XML document that tells if there's a new version as well as other news about the tool. Downloads 4 JPG images. THAT'S IT." Also, it can be successfully blocked by firewalls, etc.
I am inclined to believe jfade, as he has never given me reason to doubt his word, so I will probably download the thing when I find a need for it. YMMV.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page