Page 269 - DCAP104_EXPOSURE_TO_COMPUTER_DISCPLINES

Exposure to Computer Disciplines

Notes want to get rid of. If you’d rather get rid of all of your cookies at once, click on Clear Now... under
Private Data on the Privacy tab, and check to Cookies checkbox and uncheck all the others before
clicking on Clear Private Data Now.

If you want even easier access to cookies in Firefox, I highly recommend the View Cookies add-
on. It places a new tab on the Page Info dialog, allowing you to see all of the cookies for the site
you’re currently looking at with just a few clicks.

14.4.4 External Tools
There are a lot of third-party tools out there that are designed to make managing your cookies
easier. Many of them can be found right here on Tucows. If you’re just worried about those tracking
cookies that have the potential to violate your privacy, you’ll find that most good anti-spyware
programs will detect and optionally delete the worst of them.

14.5 Spyware and Other BUGS

14.5.1 Spyware

Some companies place “spyware” through their software installations, usually without the user’s
permission. Spyware passes on information about software, browsing habits and purchasing
habits of the user to the company’s data collection facilities. Spyware programs do not collect
information specifically, but report general demographics. Spyware could also have the capability
to take names, credit card and other personal information.
The information gathered by such companies are usually sold and combined with other databases
to build a profile of individual web users. This profile is mainly used for direct marketing purposes.
But proper ad-ware is a serious revenue model for many companies and when used correctly do
not pose a privacy threat.
Guard yourself against Spyware, use:

 Software tools
 Modify the hosts file on the system

 Remove files and making changes manually. This is a complex task as each type of spyware
behaves differently and requires a certain amount of technical know-how Another software
tool that threatens affiliate marketing is “steal ware”. These are products that modify affiliate-
tracking codes to change the person to whom the payment is due. Such tools completely
invalidate affiliate marketing as a valid revenue model. Some peer-to-peer packages are
reported to include these steal ware.

Explain how bugs can harm our data storage devices.

14.5.2 Other Web Bugs
A web bug is a graphics on a web page or an email message that is designed to monitor who is
reading the web page or email message. A web bug is often invisible as its size is only 1 pixel by
1 pixel. It is represented as HTML IMG tags. Any graphics used for monitoring is a web bug. All

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