Posted by Severt Shands on April 28, 1999 at 19:30:14:

In Reply to: Re: Beyond Cookies: Timesink "Pop-up" Ads on YOUR Desktop
posted by Tom Campbell on April 22, 1999 at 07:54:16:

: Just last night, while cleaning junk off my C: drive, I noticed this
mysterious application called tsadbot.exe in a directory tree called
TimeSink. When I took a look at it, to my horror I realized this thing was
apparently storing all kinds of information about my web surfing history!
Presumably this can retrieve, store, and share this information with
TimeSink's other customers. An advertiser's dream, and a privacy-conscious
citizen's nightmare.

: I have no idea why this piece of junk was installed on my desktop;
apparently it quietly migrated into my system, like a parasite, on the back
of some download and began quietly sucking blood. It's been there for about
six weeks without my knowledge.

: I deleted as much of this crap as I could, but--EVEN WHEN NO OTHER
APPLICATIONS WERE RUNNING and I wasn't logged onto my ISP--I couldn't delete
tsadbot.exe, not even with Norton Uninstall Deluxe, which usually can get
rid of anything, registry entries and all. It said the application was in
use.

: However, I *was* able to rename it, much to my surprise. (I chose to call
it DELETEME.DUH.) I'm going to see if I can get rid of it the next time I
boot up, since maybe it won't be in use then.

: Does anybody know of a list of companies and/or applications that are
using this insidious virus? (Yes, I think you were right to call it that.)
If ever there was a deserving group of boycott targets, they're it.


I tried a free internet service called Netzero. Netzero installed the
tsadbot.exe on my computer.


: [To reply by email, delete the number from the address listed.]

: : All--

: : Timesink/Conducent has developed a tool which takes the "cookie" concept
to new lows. Specifically, if you download and execute one of their
affiliated applications--I went for the latest PKWare Zip/Unzip app--you
also get an "ad robot" named tsadbot.exe, which is intended to do something
with advertising on your desktop, along with a quite extensive folder and
file structure, with some files named "pending" and "done", which is ominous
to me. It installs itself into your registry and no uninstall is provided.
It produces threads and absorbs your PC resources....