Passport.com - Spyware Cookie?

[WE Sim]

Hi! *:o

I ran PestPatrol v3.1 (dat at 12 Apr) and it identifies Passport.com (from MSN) as a spyware cookie.

However, neither Ad-aware nor SpybotS&D identifies it as one.

So, is this a false positive by PestPatrol?

[Checkout]

A cookie is supposed to be a text file, not an executable. *It looks like PP got a little twisted here.

[spy1]

Of course, one could make a very good case for anything coming from either MSN or passport as being 'spyware'! :) Pete

[Mike_Healan]

Well, considering Microsoft's privacy practices, arguably they're right. I think it's probably a mistake though.

FYI, Adaware isn't going to detect cookies from most companies, only from those companies that are truly arrogant in tracking people online. Doubleclick, admonitor, sextracker, etc.

[Checkout]

{QUOTE-> Doubleclick, admonitor, sextracker, etc. <-QUOTE}
I don't want my sex tracked. *What a disgusting idea. *Can we get 'em on Peeping Tom charges? *In any case, it's either a Gross invasion of Privacy or an Invasion of Gross Privacy.

Your mileage may vary.

[FanJ]

Hi WE sim,

I don't have passport.com on my system, so I cannot confirm what you have found (I do have PestPatrol).

You could post your question on the PP forum:
http://pestpatrol.com/cgi-bin/UltimateBB.cgi

I had a quick look overthere and so far I didn't see someone else mentioned it, so it might be a good idea to post it there!

[WE Sim]

Hi FanJ!

I went to PestPatrol forum from your link, however, it requires registration before posting.

Unless absolutely necessary I'll post it to PestPatrol forum otherwise I rather post it to forums which discuss a wide range of issues like here, Becky's, dslreports etc rather than specific to a software.

Thanks anyway. Its a matter of time that other users would face the same false positive and raise the issue.

Anyway, there's no harm being done as it is just a false positive. I'll wait for the next dat release before making a decision.

Thanks again.

[David Stang]

:-[

PestPatrol should not be finding any .com file as a cookie. Such a file might be a pest, of course, but at a minimum, things are misnamed here.

I would like to correct this problem ASAP. Can you provide me, as an email attachment, a copy of this file?

[MickeyTheMan]

There you go We Sim !
David is the main Man at PP !
He will have that investigated/corrected if need be in a flash ! :D

[FanJ]

{QUOTE-> :-[

PestPatrol should not be finding any .com file as a cookie. Such a file might be a pest, of course, but at a minimum, things are misnamed here.

I would like to correct this problem ASAP. Can you provide me, as an email attachment, a copy of this file? <-QUOTE}

Hi David,

Thanks for coming by ! *:)


WE Sim,
Could you please send David that file? If you don't have his email-addy, drop me or Paul an IM. Thanks *:)


Best regards, Jan.

[WE Sim]

Hi David Stang and everyone!

Sorry about the lengthy file copied to here.

Session Log

Date: Apr-16-2002 7:25:21 PM
User Name: Administrator
MAC Address:
Computer Name: PERSONAL
File System Name: FAT32
Volume Serial No: 457377773
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0.2195 Service Pack 2
System Root: C:\WINNT
Windows Registered Owner: WISELY SIM
PestPatrol Version: 3.1 [Apr-13-2002]
PestPatrol.DAT Version: Apr-12-2002
Scanning for: 32,523 pests in 8,675 families.

Auto Check for Spyware and Active Pests: Checked files in or referenced by 23 auto start areas of the registry, ini files, batch files, and directories, and checked for active spyware.

Registry Entries Checked: 178
Startup Files Scanned: 18
Startup Bytes Scanned: 3,447,139
Elapsed Time: 0.03 seconds

File Areas Selected for Scanning:
*- C:\
*- D:\


Scanning Stopped at User Request
Scanning stopped prior to scan of c:\WINNT\system32\dllcache\convlog.exe

Summary:
Files in Selected Area: 913
Files Scanned within Archives: 0
Total Files Scanned: 119
Bytes Scanned: 13,784,142
Elapsed Time: 1.46 seconds
Pests This Scan: 2
Scanned 119 files and 13,784,142 bytes at a rate of 94,412 bytes per second using Patent-Pending DeepSearch Technology.Pest Name,Path,PVT (Pest Verification Token),MD5
Passport.com Spyware Cookie,C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies\administrator@passport[3].txt,881696975,48ccc7b7f56f50f4085b082e341948a6
Passport.com Spyware Cookie,C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies\administrator@passport[1].txt,1869420366,30b6146e8367433ad61142a51ed46e5a

[Mike_Healan]

hmmmm.......

I'm guessing here. I think what PP likely found was a cookie from passport.com which it tagged as a pest, not a file called passport.com.

Is that right? Or do I need to go make more coffee?

[WE Sim]

Hi!

Just downloaded, installed and ran the latest dat from PestPatrol, dated 19 Apr, and still found Passport.com reported as before. Is it a false positive? Apparently, there's no reply from David...hmmm....


Session Log

Date: Apr-23-2002 10:22:53 PM
User Name: Administrator
MAC Address:
Computer Name: PERSONAL
File System Name: FAT32
Volume Serial No: 457377773
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0.2195 Service Pack 2
System Root: C:\WINNT
Windows Registered Owner: WISELY SIM
PestPatrol Version: 3.1 [Apr-13-2002]
PestPatrol.DAT Version: Apr-19-2002
Scanning for: 33,235 pests in 9,066 families.

Auto Check for Spyware and Active Pests: Checked files in or referenced by 23 auto start areas of the registry, ini files, batch files, and directories, and checked for active spyware.

Registry Entries Checked: 178
Startup Files Scanned: 19
Startup Bytes Scanned: 3,703,139
Elapsed Time: 0.04 seconds

File Areas Selected for Scanning:
*- C:\
*- D:\


Summary:
Files in Selected Area: 28,922
Files Scanned within Archives: 0
Total Files Scanned: 5,506
Bytes Scanned: 915,885,614
Elapsed Time: 66 seconds
Pests This Scan: 2
Scanned 5,506 files and 915,885,614 bytes at a rate of 138,771 bytes per second using Patent-Pending DeepSearch Technology.Pest Name,Path,PVT (Pest Verification Token),MD5
Passport.com Spyware Cookie,C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies\administrator@passport[3].txt,881696975,48ccc7b7f56f50f4085b082e341948a6
Passport.com Spyware Cookie,C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies\administrator@passport[1].txt,1869420366,30b6146e8367433ad61142a51ed46e5a

[selvan777]

I too am getting the same false positive, PP keeps deleting my passport cookie. I keep getting an error when I try updating as pasted below, although my last update was yesterday. I tried going to http://download.pestpatrol.com/downloads/components/ manually but get a "The page cannot be displayed" page. Anyone else not able to get updates? Is there another way to get updates?

Sep 16 2004 12:30:14 PPUpdater version 4.4.3.36
Sep 16 2004 12:30:14 Reading c:\Program Files\PestPatrol\PestPatrol.ini
Sep 16 2004 12:30:14 Updating from http://download.pestpatrol.com/downloads/components/
Sep 16 2004 12:30:14 Updating to c:\Program Files\PestPatrol\
Sep 16 2004 12:30:16 Stopping CookiePatrol.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:17 Stopping PPMemCheck.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:18 Stopping PPControl.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:20 Contacting download site ...(http://download.pestpatrol.com/downloads/components/)
Sep 16 2004 12:30:21 No internet connection available
Sep 16 2004 12:30:21 Restarting CookiePatrol.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:22 Restarting PPMemCheck.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:22 Restarting PPControl.exe
Sep 16 2004 12:30:23 There were errors

[Infinity]

I have the passport F/P too. still no problem after deleting it.

{QUOTE-> Well, considering Microsoft's privacy practices, arguably they're right <-QUOTE}

pitty enough...

[dread]

I dont think it is a false positive. That passport junk does keep track of you. Its for alot of stuff, groups,regular chat, hotmail, playing them games, and for other stuff to http://www.passport.net/consumer/consumerqa.asp?lc=1033#SSI_WhatisPP
http://www.passport.net/Consumer/PrivacyPolicy.asp?lc=1033
You see what spyware cookies are http://research.pestpatrol.com/WhitePapers/About_Cookies.asp
{QUOTE-> "Spyware cookies" are simply those cookies which are not used only by a single site for its private interactions with its users, but are shared across sites. When multiple sites read from the same cookie, those sites share information. Spyware cookies collect information from multiple sites, as they are visited, then share this info with multiple sites, as they are visited. Such spyware cookies include those containing the text 247media, admonitor, adforce, coremetrics, doubleclick, engage, flycast, sexhound, sextracker, sexlist, and valueclick in their names. <-QUOTE}
So it is cause of what the passport does http://www.passport.net/Consumer/PrivacyPolicy.asp?lc=1033 To the best of knowledge anyway. That error you got selvan777 means it cannot find the server. Either the server is down or something is blocking the update program from accessing to the interent like firewall, bad internet connection etc... It did that to me the other day, I tried back later and updated. Yes there is another way http://www.pestpatrol.com/Support/Downloads.asp

[selvan777]

I tried again much later and the updates worked fine, thanks.

Looks like it's time to give up the use of passport.net's cookie.

[nadirah]

It's a cookie for using MSN's services, hotmail, MSN messenger etc etc...
Passport.com is not a malicious website nor does it implant any spyware on your system.

[dread]

I never siad or meant that it was to implant spyware or any anything else on you computer but it does track you and it is used for a wide range of things and sites including non msn or microsoft sites. I think thats why it is considered a spyware cookie http://www.microsoft.com/net/services/passport/business.asp From that list you can see it is quite large.

[Jackfox]

{QUOTE-> I never siad or meant that it was to implant spyware or any anything else on you computer but it does track you and it is used for a wide range of things and sites including non msn or microsoft sites. I think thats why it is considered a spyware cookie http://www.microsoft.com/net/services/passport/business.asp From that list you can see it is quite large. <-QUOTE}

I've always wondered about how people decide to classify a cookie as a "spyware" or "tracking" cookie, while other cookies are okay.

After all isn't that the purpose of a cookie, to allow a website to remember you?

I suppose a tracking or spyware cookie would be one that

1) Be permanent/long expiry date (session cookies are not spyware/tracking cookies??)

and more importantly

2) Is accessed when the user visits a wide range of websites domains (eg adservers that have objects, banners embeded in many other websites)

A cookie such as one generated by Wilders would not be a tracking cookie, because it is only used in one website. One by doubleclick or even MS might be accessed when the user visits a wide range of websites on different domains, because these domains also host objects, banners etc from such "spying" sites.


Perhaps what the cookies stores is also a important citeria on deciding whether it is a spyware cookie, but this is a very vague citeria.