i think CC has spyware problems

[bball87]

this is pretty much the only website that i visit everyday, and I run my spyware software like everyday, and I always pick up 3-4 spyware cookies. Can anyone confirm this or disprove this.

[joev]

CC uses cookies to track your password and stuff like that, but I don't think that they use any Malware or whatnot. Sometimes Spyware programs track cookies as Spyware.

[ksanders]

I havent had any issue with spyware on this forum. I think you are getting it from somewhere else

[Roger_Dooley]

The reason you can stay logged in at CC is because we use cookies, but we certainly don't place any spyware cookies. By "spyware cookies" I think you mean ad cookies from sites like Doubleclick. These aren't malicious, but if you visit multiple sites that run Doubleclick ads your cookie they have the potential to consolidate that information. It's impossible to surf major sites on the web without picking some of these up (without blocking cookies, which will break many sites), so I just let my security software delete them periodically. I don't worry about the ad cookies I get from other sites - they don't pose any kind of active threat.

You can also block "third party" cookies (most ad cookies aren't from the domain you are visiting, but rather from the advertiser's domain) if your browser or security software lets you. That can create issues, too - we don't do popups or popunders here at CC, but other sites that do those kind of ads often use cookies to be sure you only get one per visit or one per day. If you block ad cookies, you may get hammered by new popups every time you change a page.

If you do see popups at CC, or oddly linked text that leads to ads, then you probably ARE infected with spyware of some kind. Music sharing software and some "free" web software often contain a sneaky payload of malware.