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Code 2 wrote:
>
> however many applications that aren't
> considered spyware -- like iTunes, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player
> -- will phone home to report statistics and usage details.
Yeah, I recently helped a friend tighten up security on his computer.
His kids had a whole bunch of music downloading software installed and
every one of them had an executable that loaded at boot time with an
icon in the system tray and they kept ports open that showed up on a
grc.com scan. I was able to get rid of those by going into the
individual apps and shutting down the automatic load at boot thing and
telling them not to phone home but it was a real pain.
Windows Media Player is a bit of a special case since it's so integrated
into the OS. You can tell it not to report statistics, etc., but you
can't shut off checking for updates AFAIK. Maybe if you turned off
having the OS check for updates but the security updates come so fast
and furious for Windows that I've bitten the bullet and let it check on
its own. I still keep manual control over what gets downloaded and
installed.
--
Dennis
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