Updated July, 2007
See also: Reader Mail
and Alexa's Response
What
You Need to Know About
Spyware, the Alexa Toolbar,
Free Software, &
Anti-spyware Programs
How
the Alexa Toolbar Created Havoc
with Internet Explorer and My Whole System
by
Barbara Brabec
When I got involved on the Web in 2000 and moved from a DOS computer to
Windows 98, I had no idea that I would eventually
be spending more time coping with Internet and computer problems than I
would actually be working on my business. Until I switched from using Windows 98
to Windows XP, I seemed
to spend at half of every working day at the
computer weeding out junk mail, downloading patches for
Microsoft products, and trying to solve my latest computer problem. Like
everyone else, I still have to trouble-shoot one computer problem after another,
but for the most part they're easier to fix these days.
For a long time, I didn’t realize I might be creating some of my computer problems
myself. Take free software, for example. Why do you think so many companies
want to give us free software? They do it only because they know they
will get something back if we accept their offer. In this case,
"free" comes with extra baggage, such as advertising banners
that we can get rid of only by upgrading to the professional paid
edition of the software. Free programs also come with spyware, baggage
most of us can't get rid of without the help of anti-spyware software.
As I have learned from experience, some spyware can run quite a lot behind the
scenes, causing one's
system resources to be lowered.
I learned from Smart Computing magazine that spyware is usually planted on our computer systems without our
knowledge. It may arrive as a malicious e-mail attachment or be hidden within a commercial, freeware, or shareware
application we’ve installed. Susan Scheid, SmallBiz
Community, added to my education with this message: "The big problem with spyware is that it usually isn't something you
know about. Someone hypes a free program or system, you use
it, and they never tell you that instead of charging you they are transmitting (selling) your data to other companies for use in their
advertising campaigns. The
creators of these free programs include banner ads or tracking devices that give
advertisers information about your surfing statistics, in exchange for using
the program for free. That way, they still get paid for the program--not
by you, but by advertisers who purchase your site statistics."
Downloading a free software program doesn’t usually affect
the way our computer systems operate, but you may have noticed that all
End User License Agreements (EULAs) specifically state that the manufacturer
won’t be held responsible if problems do occur. I’m not suggesting that we stop
downloading free software; only that we pay more attention to the company
offering the software, and what we’re agreeing to in the user license. These
agreements are always so long and boring that we seldom take time to read them
before clicking "I accept." If we did, we might discern the provider’s
ulterior motives.
My Costly ALEXA Toolbar Experience
If you’ve been invited to download
the Alexa
toolbar, I suggest you
consider passing on this particular freebie. While looking for new affiliate
programs to add to my site three years ago, I stumbled across the "Alexa
Associate" toolbar offer that told me I could earn affiliate income
through their association with Amazon.com simply by encouraging others to
download this free toolbar from my site. When my visitors did that, my
affiliate code would go with their download, and every time they used
their Alexa toolbar to search Amazon.com in the future, I would get a
commission on any purchases they made. Since I’m already an Amazon.com affiliate,
I thought this sounded like a good deal, so I downloaded the toolbar and
was planning to add it to my site when, all of a sudden, I began
to have serious problems with Internet Explorer.
Every time I had more than one browser window open and tried to close
it, IE would lock up, often making it impossible for me to
exit other programs as well. I kept getting messages that my system
resources were too low to open a program--something I've never had a
problem with before. And, in most cases, I couldn’t reboot or shut
down and was forced,
several times, to just press the shut-off button. After doing all the
usual things, such as defragging, checking for viruses, cleaning out old
temporary files, dumping cookies, etc., I called Gateway for assistance.
As usual, their pat answer was, "You’ll have to reformat your
hard drive and reload Internet Explorer." I told them they might as
well stick a knife in my heart because I didn’t have the time or
energy to do that then (or ever).
After downloading
the free Opera browser so I could continue my work on the Web, I called
an online computer repair service for help. After checking my whole
system and finding nothing wrong, they told me to ignore Gateway’s
advice and look instead for Registry problems or spyware that might be
gumming up the works. They confirmed the advice given to me by Susan
Scheid, who suggested that I download the
free version of Ad-Aware, an anti-spyware program that scans one’s hard drive system
for files, cookies, and other spyware that may have been
planted while surfing the Web or downloading files.
"It provides a list
and gives the user the option of removing some or all of them with a
click or two," Susan told me. "You can manually do it by checking the major companies known to use
spyware, then following instructions on the Web to remove that info from your system's
hard drive and registries. But that's very time-consuming and technical. So
programs like Ad-Aware help with this step. I run this program once a month, usually at the same time I
do a major full computer backup. The last time I ran it, it
turned up five objects on my computer, even though I hadn't downloaded any new programs
or opened any attachments since the last scan. I have Norton Antivirus
and AVG for virus checking, so I must have picked up these things from Web sites I had visited."
Until I ran the first
Ad-Aware scan on my computer and turned up 150
"objects" that had been planted there, it didn’t dawn on me that my
problems with Internet Explorer had begun only after I had downloaded
the Alexa toolbar. Alexa describes itself as a free search and
navigation companion that accompanies you as you surf, providing useful
information about the sites you visit without interrupting your Web
browsing. Since it implants itself on the Internet Explorer toolbar, you’d
think it would work okay with this browser, but in my case it caused serious problems. Of
the 150 objects discovered by the Ad- Aware scan, 46 were Rootkey files
planted in my Registry by Alexa--and all of these "files" were
transmitting data back to Alexa about my Web-surfing habits.
Curiously, when I had tried earlier to remove the Alexa program from
my system using the add/removal tool in my control panel, I got a
message saying a certain file couldn’t be found, so I couldn’t
delete the program. But the program finally disappeared from view after
Ad-Aware removed all the Alexa-planted Rootkey files from my registry,
along with all the other
unwanted spyware files and cookies planted there by others. That took care of my
Internet Explorer problem.
In
Summary
At the time I posted this article (mid-2004) I anticipated getting mail from
some readers saying there was nothing wrong
with the Alexa toolbar, that it was proving to be a profitable affiliate
program for them, and that it couldn't possibly have been the reason for
my problems with Internet Explorer and my system lockups. I did get mail
about this, but never had the time to post it until now (see below).
At that time, there was a lot of discussion on Internet forums about IE
crashes. Now there are some 38 million pages on this topic. (Just Google "Internet Explorer crashes" to turn them up,
and add "Alexa" to the keywords for different pages. See below for some
pages I found of interest
when I originally posted this article.)
I didn't find any evidence that the Alexa Toolbar
was crashing IE; all I knew for sure was that my computer problems started only after I
downloaded this toolbar, and disappeared as soon as I got rid of
it.
If you like the Alexa toolbar and want to push it on others, be my
guest. I'd like to generate extra income, but this is one affiliate
program I'm not going to push on MY readers because I don't like to be
spied on and I'm sure they don't, either. More important, if this caused
me IE problems, it may be a problem for other computer users, too.
RELATED ARTICLES ON THE WEB:
"Is Alexa Spying on You" at IMilly.com
More information about the Alexa Toolbar and how to remove it,
from Kephyr.com
Information about the stats provided by Alexa, at Jimworld.com
"Inside Spyware: A Guide to Finding, Removing and Preventing Online
Pests" at IntranetJournal.com.
Finally, read "Is the Alexa Toolbar Spyware?" by my friend,
John Dilbeck at JohnDilbeck.com,
who responded to my article by posting an article on his site that
explains why he disagrees with me about the Alexa toolbar, and how it is
helping him and millions of others do business on the Web.
READ
Feedback from Readers HERE.
Read Response from Alexa's
Customer Service Dept.
