For All Major Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Software

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Why Do I Need P2P Doctor?

The free versions of popular peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus, iMesh, Bearshare, Limewire, and Warez P2P, are typically "adware" supported, meaning that bundled with them is a collection of other programs that generate various types of advertisements for automatic display on your computer. If you prefer to use file sharing software with all of the adware and other third party software that comes along with it, then you don't need P2P Doctor. However, please continue reading and in time you will understand why you may want to reconsider that decision..

Convenience

It is certainly the case that the third party adware software bundled with file sharing programs can be inconvenient. Such programs can contain dozens, and perhaps even hundreds of bundled programs that can not only chew up valuable disk space, and other resources, but can become a unwanted nuisance that is diffifult to eliminate. For example, users report being awakened in the middle of the night by voices and music coming from their computer. Unwittingly, when they installed a particular file sharing program, they also installed a program that randomly displays popup ads, including audio ads, on their computer, day or night.

Perhaps one of the biggest unpleasant side effects is an increase in spam. Adware and spyware often locates email addresses and phones home with them. These addresses are then added to other addresses and traded or passed between spammers. At that point, the daily amount of spam email you receive may double or even triple, month by month. One recent estimate is that spam currently accounts for more than 50% of all message traffic. And according to The Register (January 13, 2003), AOL estimates it is at the receiving end of a staggering 500 million spam emails every day. The proliferation of adware and spyware via P2P networks contributes to this problem - and adware and spyware on your own system simply directs more spam towards you.

Even worse, such adware programs typically include built in downloaders that retrieve still other programs via the internet, including other adware programs, spyware programs, worms, RATs (remote access Trojans), backdoors, and other types of malware---software---even when you are not even using your P2P software. And since this is all done covertly, you will never even know it is happening. Nevertheless, the cumulative effect of all of that adware and spyware running on your computer in the background can have a seriously detrimental effect on system performance. For example, the continual phoning home with user information, and the accessing and delivery of new pop-ups and banner advertisements can have a serious and costly effect bandwidth usage, especially on college campuses, within corporations, or for those users who have bandwidth usage limits imposed on them by their Internet Access Providers.

Finally, some spyware / adware programs are specifically designed to automatically re-install themselves after the user has removed them. And the improper removal of adware and spyware may actually damage your internet browser and render it unusable. In other words, installing a file sharing program on your computer can result in a never ending stream of new, unknown, and dangerous problem software being added to your machine without your knowledge--software that you may have tremendous difficulty eliminating from your system.

Privacy

However, the problems with these peer-to-peer files aharing programs is not simply a matter of inconvenience. These programs are also spying on you.

In general, spyware is any software that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put on someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers, employers, or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a virus or as the result of installing a new program. And while it can be as innocuous as simply recording what ads you click on, it can also be used to search out and relay personal information or even record all of the keystrokes you perform while using your computer. In April of this year, EarthLink and desktop privacy and security company Webroot Software Inc. released a survey of 1 million Internet users. They found that more than 300,000 programs running on the 1 million systems surveyed were designed to steal personal information and even potentially give attackers access to users' systems. The survey also found more than 30% of all systems scanned were infected with Trojan horses or system-monitoring applications.

What personal information are you willing to have provided to advertisers, businesses, or worse, without your knowledge or permission? The addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of your friends and family? Your login and password for your bank's website? Your frequent visits to websites you might be embarrassed to have friends or coworkers to know about?

Each of the developers of Kazaa, iMesh, and Morpheus freely acknowledge that their software installs adware software, and other types of ad serving software on your computer system, in exchange for you being allowed to use their software without charge. And several of them "claim" that their software is spyware free? But is it really? Are you willing to take the word of an advertising company that no personal information is being collected or passed on to others? And if it were, how would you even know? In fact, if you read the fine print on their websites, you will discover that exactly the opposite is true. And even worse, what about the stuff that is attached to their software and placed on your computer that the file sharing software providers don't acknowledge, or may not even be aware of themselves?

For example, with regard to both iMesh v4.5 (current version) and Kazaa Media Desktop v2.7 (current version), adware from GAIN (Gator Advertising Information Network) Publishing is bundled with those P2P products. And on the GAIN Publishing website, it is clearly stated that "the GAIN AdServer does collect and use certain information", including "web pages that your computer views and how much time is spent at those sites", "whether products were purchased online", "responses to displayed ads," "operating system type and version, browser types and versions, [and] various system related information (such as screen resolution, time zone selected, etc", "what software is on the host computer", and other computer usage habits.

While they may claim that this information is collected in such a way that it is "anonymous", how can you be sure that this is really the case when all of it is happening without you knowing about it or even being able to view what information is being collected and transmitted?. A computer user's identity could easily be determined through information entered into online forms, purchases made at ecommerce sites, registration codes for installed software, or even registered domain names for return email addresses listed in email client software.

And if publishers of third party software bundled with these programs were also collecting personal information, do you really think that the makers of iMesh, Kazaa, or Morpheus really care? The iMesh Privacy Policy clearly states that "as a result of your visit to our site or use of the website" including downloading and using the iMesh software, "ad server companies may collect information such as your domain type and your IP address to determine which country you are in and other geographic information to provide you with promotional material and offers that are available or relevant in your country". Once a third party knows your IP address, it is a simple matter to then identify who you are and associate any information collected with your identity.

Even more troubling, the iMesh statement goes on to say "iMesh software DOES, however, include additional applications bundled with the software's installer file. Third-party applications bundled with this download may record your surfing habits, deliver advertising, collect private information, or modify your system settings." In other words, while on the front of their site they disclaim any "spyware" being part of their software, in the fine print of their privacy statement, they freely admit that it might be.

Finally, the iMesh License Agreement states..."iMesh disclaims to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, any responsibility for or liability related to the third party software. Any questions, complaints or claims related to the third party software should be directed to the appropriate vendor." This leaves me wondering.  If a user were to have a concern or complaint regarding the collection and use of their private information by one or more of these third party software providers, and IMesh assumes no responsibility for that activity, it would seem that they are saying that your only other recourse would be to no longer use iMesh. In other words, the user would clearly not have the option of using iMesh without continuing to subject themselves to the inappropriate or even illegal behavior of the third party provider.

At least with regard to iMesh v4.5 and Kazaa Media Desktop v2.7, the privacy issues are clear. With regard to Morpheus v.4.2, however, the issues are not so clear. Neither the Morpheus.com website, nor the website of Streamcast Networks, the publisher of Morpheus, provide any information regarding what third party software is bundled with Morpheus. However, the Pest Research Center reports that "the company has begun installing a web browser add-on that sends some Morpheus users on an invisible web detour aimed at capturing data about file swappers's surfing habits". For example, if a file swapper were to visit a site such as RadioShack.com, eBay.com, or a handful of others, this software (called Morpheus Shopping) from WURLD Media, causes their computer to actually visit a separate site behind the scenes before loading the final destination site. Those sites, run by marketing companies such as Be Free, count how many times Morpheus users stop by and collect other user information. However, some observers suspect that this "spy software" is fact doing even more (see below). Morpheus also installs Cydoor ad serving software and IPinsight, which admittedly monitors your internet usage and habits. Other third party adware/spyware bundled with Morpheus software at various times has included MySearch Bar, BroadcastPC, and WebSavings.

Are you a pawn?

In the 1970's movie titled Colossus: The Forbin Project, a super-intelligent super-computer is used to interconnect all of America's computers, all of America's vital services, and most importantly, all of America's nuclear defenses, into one giant computer network. However, it is soon realized that Colossus has an agenda of its own. Soon after activation, it links up with it's Soviet counterpart and the two computers together pursue a plan for world domination backed up with the threat of nuclear annihilation.

According to News.com, at least one recent version of Kazaa Media Desktop (v 2.0.2) includes bundled third party software from a company called Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE) that seems eerily familiar. While the software is initially installed along with Kazaa in an inactive state, when the software is activated on the millions of computers on to which it has been deposited, it sets up a hidden background peer-to-peer network separate from, but connected to, the Kazaa network, that will allow BDE the ability to then remotely make use of the users computers for whatever purposes they choose. The software is called "Altnet Secureinstall" and while it is unclear if more recent versions of Kazaa contain this software add-on, the version of Kazaa that clearly does contain it is still in operation on the computers of millions of Kazaa users. And even for those Kazaa users who upgrade to a more recent version, the Altnet software remains, lurking on their computer, awaiting the message from BDE to "wake up." The expressed purpose of this software is to use the vast network of Kazaa user's interconnected computers as a distribution network for a variety of content, including third party advertising, promotional material, and music.

Even more troubling, by having this background network software in wide use on the millions of computers using Kazaa, BDE intends to then to use the unused processing power on all of these computers to help them and other companies with complex computing tasks--again, without the knowledge of the owners.. BDE says that they have been testing the technology along with ad giant DoubleClick, as a way to serve web ads more quickly. More specifically, a popup ad or banner ad that a person sees while using Kazaa, or while visiting an ad supported website, might actually be hosted on a nearby user's computer, without their knowledge, instead of on a central ad server, as typically happens with DoubleClick. In other words, unsuspecting Kazaa users will not only be subject to a bombardment of ads from other advertising servers, but in fact may be having their computer used without their knowledge (or permission?) to serve ads to other Kazaa users or web surfers..

In response to concerns raised about this practice, BDE's CEO noted that Kazaa users will be asked before their computers are used for this or other purposes. However, it is worth nothing that people who accept the "terms of service" distributed with this particular version of the Kazaa software (and by extension, the BDE software), apparently "agree" to let their computers be used in this manner anyhow. The "terms of service" specifically states "You hereby grant (BDE) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in the distribution of computing... " If you decline this provision, you will not be able to install the Kazaa file-swapping software. So do you really have a choice? Again, if you have problems with this one particular third party software add on, you are not given the option of disabling it, while continuing to use Kazaa. The makers of Kazaa seem satisfied that your only recourse would be to stop using the Kazaa software completely.

And are you tech savvy enough to realize that by accepting the Kazaa and BDE terms of service, you are agreeing to allow an advertising company to have basically unlimited access to and use of your computer 24/7, for whatever purposes they may choose? Are you comfortable having your computer used to distribute advertising to other computer users or for other unknown purposes while you have no idea what is being doned or by whom? As Larry Poneman, CEO of the Privacy Council, an internet privacy consulting group, has noted "A lot of the people most likely to use this software are teenagers or college students. There's a lack of sensitivity about privacy in that age group.....Do they really want to be commandeered and have their machines do things that aren't necessarily in their best interests."

Finally, because the Kazaa and BDE programs create a direct connection between millions of computer users, it creates a MAJOR security hole that can be easily exploited by anyone. Hackers, or even internet terrorists, could break into BDE's main adserver, and when the BDE program on all the infected computers phones home, the hacker can then use the background network to send the users all sorts of malicious files, like viruses, trojans, and worms.

Eliminating The Problem Is Not Easy

According to the Pest Research Center, Kazaa Media desktop deposits around 56 objects on your computer when you install it. It also makes as many as 200 separate changes to your system registry. Locating and removing all of these objects and correcting so many registry entries manually would not only be difficult and time consuming, but also significantly error-prone. And errors made in editing your system registry could cause major problems for the operation of other software on your computer and Windows, or perhaps make your computer unusable until Windows is completely reinstalled. Similarly, iMesh deposits at least 18 objects onto your computer, and makes as many as 150 separate changes to your system registry, while for Morpheus, the numbers are 22 separate objects, and over 20 separate registry changes. Thus, the advantage of having a program like P2P Doctor is clear. It will AUTOMATICALLY detect, remove, and correct any additions or changes made to your computer system by iMesh, Morpheus, or Kazaa Media Desktop. And it will do so quickly, safely, and in a way that will allow you to continue to use your P2P software comfortably.

To eliminate these problems, and prevent others you need P2P Doctor 2.0

Put simply, why use any other anti-adware or anti-spyware program to clean the junk out of your peer-to-peer file sharing software? P2P Doctor 2.0 is designed specifically for that purpose and will detect and remove thousands of types of adware and spyware  not removed by other programs. Only with P2P Doctor 2.0 can you be assured of using your peer-to-peer software adware and spyware FREE!

For more info on the risks of P2P, visit the Federal Trade Commision's info page here.