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 Spies Among Us
O.K., maybe it does sound a little paranoid. But last year over the Christmas holidays, Richard Smith, a Brookline, Mass., software entrepreneur and freelance computer investigator, became convinced his computer was spying on him. It began after Smith had downloaded onto his laptop a nifty program he found called zBubbles, which is supposed to help people shop online. A product of Amazon subsidiary Alexa, zBubbles does some helpful things. When you're surfing e-commerce websites, it pops up and offers recommendations about products. And just like a good shopping pal, it even gives you comparative shopping advice about where you may be able to get a specific item cheaper.
There's a dark side to the program, though, that isn't nearly so friendly. While browsing an Internet-privacy newsgroup, Smith came across a posting from a zBubbles user who suspected it was snooping on him. The program supposedly monitored what users were doing online and discreetly reported back to Alexa.
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Introduction
Are you paranoid? You might be one of 20 million people who should be.
Watch Out
Four E.T. companies and their software
The Cookie Trackers
Avoiding cookies is easy, but they may not be the real threat
Hiding Your Secrets
Encryption programs are a great way to preserve privacy
Poll:
Have privacy concerns ever kept you from using an online service?
Killing Cookies
Find out how the cookie crumbles.
Privacy Sites
Psst! Can you keep a secret?