update: evaluation of Firefox Browser - spyware too!

About 6 months ago I decided to try Firefox Browser for the first time. For the most part I found it very easy to download the core browser EXE program, run it (to install Firefox) and then begin browsing using Firefox. So far, so good. To this day I have continued to use Firefox primarily for only one specific purpose - viwing videos of the various formats (google, youtube, AVI, FLASH, etc). I had always avoided (like the plague) updating my MS-XP OS to install flash support, this was due to very specific concerns on my part and how I perceive various security/virus problems getting a path into a computer system through the MS OS itself. Long story, that, for now, just take it that I dont trust MS.

Firefox seemed to work seemlessly for viewing video files. I tried using it for general purpose browsing, and while this seemed to generally work okay, I quickly found an increasing number of web sites that seem to manifest all kinds of mostly minor, quirky types of glitches when visiting with Firefox.

Another thing I found that I don't like about Firefox - and I'll admit up front that this may be opposite to the average perso's likes/dislikes, is that it automatically downloads and installs new updates without any prompting to me to permit/deny this. This just goes against my general computer nature - I want to know and have control over software, especially "new features" or "security updates", that get loaded. Again, Iunderstand that a lot of people may find that they really like  a feature that does things for them without them even knowing about it, so I'm not really debating this issue, just stating how it is from my end of it. There have been two or three occassions now when, after Firefox automatically downloaded and installed a new version, I could then not browse any web site. I'm still not sure what all the details are to this, but I suspect it involves some interplay with Norton software firewall & antivirus. Norton also has a habit of doing things to a computer without notifiying the user. The bigger problem here is that it generally takes more technical know how "babysitting" with Norton in order to get it to stop doing these knids of things I find really annoying. The best solution I have found when Firefox automaticaly updates itself AND THEN I am unable to browse anywhere - as though my internnet/ISP connection is broken, is to reboot and perfom a "restore" to a previously known working time/date before the Firefox update. NOTE: I DO NOT use Microsoft's "restore" feature. I tried it a few times when XP first came out and quickly found I do not like the way it works.

The last update on Firefox I have is really the main point for this update post. In the past few days I've noticed a number of odd occurances on my computer. This in itself is really not out of the ordinary ever since I was literally forced to update to a newer version of Norton firewall/antivirus about 7 months ago. Be this as it may, the past few days I noticed a number of prompts from Norton Firewall drawing my attention that various "modules" within Internet Explorer were tryign to open a connection to the Internet. The strange aspect of this is, there was really nothing going on with my computer - at least nothing I was outwardly aware of, to be trying to open a connection it he first place. Some of these prompts drew my attention to what had been the present version of Spybot - Search & Destroy program that I use for minimizing the amount of spyware that covertly is installed into my computer. It had been several months since I last checked for an update to Spybot. So, even though I do not know what the reason was for all these recent Norton warnings,  I decided it was time to go check for Spybot updates. I installed a newer Spybot engine - version 1_4, and at the same time opted to load ALL of the libraries it offers for spwyare checking/signatures, etc. After downloading and instlaling these, I then rean the first scan with the new version. It found 7 separate pieces of spyware on my computer, and 5 of them it tracked directly to Firefox. Bear in mind that in the present, there are literally thousands and thousands of potential spyware pieces that can be secretly loaded into your computer just from web browsing. The new Spybot libraries just loaded includes upwards to 56,000 different spyware "signatures". The first scan using V 1_4 found 7, 5 of them linked to Firefox - and 4 of these cookie related (the other pointed to link spyware called - Alexa Related), the other two linked to spyware faciliated through Microsoft Internet Explorer allowing specific changes to Registry settings. Spybot then provided a tool to fix these 7 errors, which I had it do, and then it offered a tool to "immunize" againts all 56,000 (plus) spyware signatures in it's present udated libraries. I had it do this too.

Note: of these 5 Firefox-related spyware problems, they 4 were associated with "cookies", but the first one found pointed to spyware named  Alexa Related and specifically pointed to a spyware link. The four spyware cookies found: one for Avenue A. Inc, one for DoubleClick, one two for Zedo. 

FWIW, the two pieces allowed via Microsoft were Registry settings within the module Microsoft calls "Microsoft Windows Security Center".... isn't that a hoot?; one was a Firewall setting, the other was an Anti-virus setting.  

Note: in all my web browsing, I most frequently notice a prompt from Spybot alerting me that a given web site is attempting to load the Avenue A. Inc. tracking cookie. The biggest and most frequent offender for this, from my end, seems to be with the really big, massive, corporate-based web sites. Just a few examples of these are MSNBC, ESPN, and even a Spellchecker website I sometimes use that is owned/operated by Merriam Webster, which I believe is also now under the same ownership as the Britanica people AND which I have found direct links to the University of Chicago and House Rockefeller; all the more reason why I now avoid these conglomerate web sites if and when possible.

I've seen many people remark that spyware pieces like Avenue A. Ince are "harmless, nothing to worry about,  you're beign paraoid" and the like. It may be harmless, I do not know for sure, but I do know that it seems odd that web site owners have a high propensity for wanting to covertly put this harmless spyware mechanism on my computer. Why not just be upfront about the desire to load a harmless spyware piece onto somebody's computer?