File Downloaders Spying

The File Download Utilities from Real Networks, Netscape/AOL, and NetZip *ARE* Spying On Us!

Steve Gibson of Gibson Research has uncovered a new privacy threat, according to his July 2000 Newsletter, repeated here with permission.

For more information on this latest threat to our privacy see:

  1. A comprehensive new page on Steve's web site which discusses this threat at greater length and shows the detailed contents of a "spyware packet" as it was leaving a test machine of his:

    File Downloaders

  2. A very active PUBLIC DISCUSSION FORUM which you are invited to use for asking questions and getting more information. Any standard Internet newsreader -- like those included in Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator -- can be used to participate in the free discussion forums at grc.com. Just click the link below to launch your reader and begin participating ...

    The Newsletter Forum

    Or, if that doesn't work, you can access the forum through their web-based interface (though it is much less cool.)

    Web Discussion

    The SERIOUS New Spyware Threat ...

    NetZip's "Download Demon" was purchased by Real Networks and renamed "Real Download". then Netscape/AOL licensed it from Real and called it "Netscape Smart Download."

    By watching the "packet traffic" flowing out of one of his machines while downloading a file through the Internet, Steve verified the rumors which you may have heard regarding these programs: All of these programs immediately tag your computer with a unique ID, after which EVERY SINGLE FILE you download from ANYWHERE on the Internet (even places that might not be anyone else's business) is immediately reported back to the program's source, along with your machine's unique ID *and* its unique Internet IP address.

    This information allows them to compile and create a detailed "profile" about who you are based upon the web sites you visit and the files you have downloaded.

    Perhaps you don't mind being watched and tracked as you move around the Internet ... and having every file you download reported along with your unique ID and IP address.But the idea of this being done WIHTOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE, seems invasive to me in the extreme. And even if you carefully read the program's license, you might not be aware that this is going on or that "you agreed to it" when you accepted their terms!

    More than 14 Million people are already using the original NetZip Download Demon. NetZip knows the exact number, since every copy of their program "phones home" to report on what their users are doing! And I'm sure people are downloading Real Network's ReadDownload and Netscape's SmartDownload like crazy.

    A Class Action lawsuit was recently filed against Netscape/AOL because of this privacy invasion, so perhaps the PC industry will begin to receive the message that this sort of secret spying and profiling is not okay with the rest of us, even if it is buried within a lengthy license agreement. You decide.

    And, of course, the next release of Steve Gibson's OptOut spyware detection and removal utility WILL consider these programs to be dangerous, and warn its users of their presence in their systems. But I wanted to be sure that you knew RIGHT AWAY what was going on, and that he had independently confirmed that this invasive file download and trackability really was occurring.

    The Gibson Research web page has the FULL STORY, with plenty of background/

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    Don Singleton, President
    djs@ionet.net