is privacy s/w foolproof??

25-05-2002, 09:31 AM

Hi,

Just to wanna know is s/w like adaware, DAP, even the browser able protect any individual's privacy??

Is it possible for adware to find 100% (exactly) all the privacy issues? For eg. DAP is not found to be a ad program .. thus if u use the download engine .. naturally DAP would be able to gather this info. Also search engine like yahoo and google would be able to track ur IP address and what u have searched. Internet is now so integrated into windows .. does anyone knows exactly wat is going on?? Is engineers able to reverse engineer and find every single privacy concern?? That only a very small file need to be uploaded to the respective party .. while the preparatory work is embedded into the original software and improved upon wif the service packs and patches.

Is pay services such as, anonymiser able to secure privacy issues 100%?? Also it raises the concern when very big service packs are installed upon software (the affect risk of possible service packages in addition to the privacy concerns the original software had prior).

Is it true to there is only one method to gaurantee privacy and thats not to use the internet?? (AND WIRELESS peripherals).

RC

25-05-2002, 09:39 AM

it also raises the point .. how limited our firewall is given the designing by the maker. Regarding to Susan B's post .. MS OFFICE can provide info of ur office files and other information to Microsoft. When this did bypass a firewall and we knew nothing was going on until someone found out .. how many things is not found out??

If we can't block it .. cannot deny access to that feature ... what can we do??

How does the media know what proportion of the users uses MS/Netscape, Eudora/Outllok/Express, what is searched most often at a particular sesarch engine.

RC

25-05-2002, 02:35 PM

I'm a bit of net newbie but did write COBOL in the days of steam. My approach to the internet is to NEVER assume any privacy. Banks have been improving their security for oh...maybe 3000 yrs and they still get busted into both physically and digitally. My father always says 'Whatever one person builds up another can take down.'

25-05-2002, 03:08 PM

Call me cynical, but I don't think there is such a thing as a 100% guarantee of anything on the internet, except the guarantee that there is no guarantee :)

To be honest, if someone desperately wants to break your privacy, they can and there is little you can do to stop it (just as if someone wants to burgle your house there they can and there is little you can do to stop it).

Indeed, most security or privacy software is intended more to delay or to make the job more difficult for the person trying to break into your systems (identify your private stuff) but not to stop it altogether.

I suppose a quick answer would be, if it really worries you that much the easiest solution is to stop using the internet. This isn't exactly practical in most cases, so the most practical suggestion, I think, would be to suggest that you hold an awareness of the issues that are out there (of a privacy or security nature) and take steps to ensure your privacy as much as possible, but be aware that the risk always exists.

I don't know if this helps exactly, but I remember a number of these points being raised during a lecture I attended at the University of Auckland by one of the top data security researchers in NZ.