[Urban_Legend]

Hello,

I just noticed that in my cookies in Safari there is multiple cookies called webtrendslive popping up whenever I surf the web. It doesn't matter where I go, they follow me. So I did a quick google search and found out who they are. They are one of those spyware websites that attach themselves to your computer by visiting a certain website. But here is the kicker, you don't know which websites track you like this and have this company on it.

I have deleted my cookies many times today, and everytime I start up Safari those cookies are there from that company as soon as I start to surf the web. This scares me as I do online banking etc.... plus I don't want these people spying on me and collecting my data while I surf the web. Has anyone heard of these people? I have done a search on my system to try and locate where the bug is hiding, but I can't seem to find it. Do I have to look in Safari somewhere? I would appreciate a step by step on how to clear this crap from my system if anyone knows how

If you do a Google Search on Webtrendslive you can read up on what they do. I'm dumb founded as to how I got this on my Mac?

 

[sputnik]

Start by trashing your Safari Prefs.

Home-library-prefrences

 

[Chealion]

You can also try resetting Safari.

 

[Urban_Legend]

I have tried both of those and nothing seems to work. However, after trying some of the main websites Apple, ZDNet and here, it shows up at Apple's site......not when visiting ZDNet or here at ehMac. I wonder if this is something new? Or just me?

 

[monokitty]

I'm getting the exact same cookies logged onto my Safari as well. WTF? The only secure way to prevent yourself from getting these cookies is to first delete them, then turn "Accept Cookies: NEVER"

I doubt the company is actually spying on your personal information, but if it is, it'd be a good idea to contact them about it.

 

[monokitty]

Ok, I did some research on this company, and it's not a "spy" company. It's one of those companies that make like a visitor counter for other web sites, but instead of just counting how many visitors you get, it also tracks what other sites you visit as well - for, apparently, statictical reasons. It says on their web site, near the PRIVACY POLICY, that no personal information is collected or anayalized during the process.

Now, that made me feel better. =)

 

[The Doug]

I think Safari is great & it's my mainstay browser. But its cookie-handling definitely needs work IMHO.

Apple should implement the same kind of cookie handling seen in Camino - where it will ask permission before setting cookies, and remember your decision for each one.

 

[used to be jwoodget]

It's a good idea to review your cookies every so often. I need to use cookies to access a bunch of subscription sites for science journals and I find them useful for sites like this. However, the webtrends cookies are not innocuous. Some are used to direct particular types of adverts/banners to your attention when you visit a site. I really don't like that. You can screw up their accuracy/relevancy simply by deleting the relevant cookies.

I wish there was a way of protecting certain cookies and then purge all but those everytime you quit. There are probably apps to do this. I also wish cookies had more info associated with them to allow you to decide whether they are useful or not. I usually delete the one 's I've no clue about but, for example, the cookies set for accessing Air Canada's datavalet service is totally esoteric (just numbers).

 

[The Doug]

Exactly.

I review my cookies after every 2nd internet session, and then do a clean-up. There are some I want to / need to keep (e.g. certain trusted websites that I visit frequently).

As for the unwanted ones, I delete them all. In the Cookies pane you can do multiple selections by holding the Command then clicking on all the ones you want to delete. It's clunky, it works, but I wish there was a better way.

Maybe if enough people complain about Safari's cookie handling using the Bug Report feature, Apple will take notice and give us more options in the future...

 

[mmflame]

my recommendation:

Download MacScan PB5 Carbon. It's similar to Ad-Aware on the PC platform as it searches your Mac for spyware and lets you remove them.

 

[Urban_Legend]

Hi everyone,

Thank you Lars and everyone else for your useful feedback on this topic

. Lars my mistake on the Spyware part, that is how I looked at it when I read it from their website. But now I understand how it all works. I have now turned my cookies to Never, and only turn it on when I visit the sites that require it. In the end it still sucks to see this sort of thing going on behind our backs without any choice in the matter. I am one of those people who check my cookies every web session, I guess I am sort of used to it from the old Windows days .

 

[The Doug]

You can download MacScanPB5Carbon through VersionTracker.

Remember, this is a public beta. Some have reported that it corrupted certain preference files on their system. I downloaded it this morning anyway (only 1.7 mb so it was quick). It ran okay, no spyware was found on my iMac.

But since I read posts about corrupted preferences, I'm going to give my system a thorough checkout to see if anything is amiss...

ADDENDUM: It seems to have done away with my Mouse preferences, I'm still on the lookout for other problems.

[ June 15, 2003, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: Doug Gardhouse ]