AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:17 am
If any of you have updated to the new AVG 8 Edition of this free Anti-Virus programme you may notice a new feature called "LinkScanner" what this basically does is if you search for something in say google it flags all the results to make sure that they are safe to visit and don't have a virus or anything else nasty, unfortunately this feature has major drawbacks, so make sure you disable it, read more here:
take note of this part especially:
"Buffy wrote:
So, let me see if I've got this right... Every dodgy website that LinkScanner visits will have your IP address in their usage logs. You will be identified as a legitimate visitor. Traffic from that site to your PC will be traceable via your ISP. If that site is currently under police investigation you can, potentially, expect a knock at your door any time soon. Your defence that it was LinkScanner that visited the site and not you is indefensible in court as LinkScanner traffic is deliberately indistinguishable from a human visitor. Now how comfortable do AVG customers feel having this software installed ? I was recently thinking of switching to AVG. I've changed my mind. Not only because the effects of this software are clearly ill-thought-out, but because of the apparent indifference of AVG to the legitimate concerns of their own customers and web site owners, big and small."
take note of this part especially:
"Buffy wrote:
So, let me see if I've got this right... Every dodgy website that LinkScanner visits will have your IP address in their usage logs. You will be identified as a legitimate visitor. Traffic from that site to your PC will be traceable via your ISP. If that site is currently under police investigation you can, potentially, expect a knock at your door any time soon. Your defence that it was LinkScanner that visited the site and not you is indefensible in court as LinkScanner traffic is deliberately indistinguishable from a human visitor. Now how comfortable do AVG customers feel having this software installed ? I was recently thinking of switching to AVG. I've changed my mind. Not only because the effects of this software are clearly ill-thought-out, but because of the apparent indifference of AVG to the legitimate concerns of their own customers and web site owners, big and small."