Enero 10, 2006

Viral Tracking

This is scary and annoying. This company has a service called The Viral Chart where marketing and advertising videos distributed on the internet for "viral marketing" purposes have a little "sprite" embedded in them that "phones home" over the network, even if you're just watching the file locally on your computer, and tells them whenever you play the file. (So they can track how well the campaign is working, see?)

Ok, so, from now on whenever you watch something on your computer, ipod, whatever, discconnect it from the internet, or else open up the file with quicktime pro or whatever and strip out the little virus.

Or just learn to stop worrying and love the bomb, I guess.

(thanx josé)

Posted by steev at Enero 10, 2006 09:19 PM
Comments
i recommend "little snitch" for mac. it is basically a firewallish thing with a ui. when *anything* tries to go out (or in) from your computer, it will pop up a window and tell you whats up. you can block it one time, forever, etc. the down side of it is now i know just how much *tries* (and fails, in my case) to phone home. yeesh! Posted by: xor at Enero 10, 2006 10:38 PM
I Agree, Little Snitch is nice. If you don't have it, let me know. Due to a glitch in the order system (or actually, me being an idiot), I accidentally bought two licenses, so I would be glad to give you one of mine. Posted by: Allanimal at Enero 11, 2006 09:38 AM