di , they only work with supercoffee or supercocoa. regular coffee or cocoa drinks can't blend their flavours with them.

DD, try hosts file or firewall controls... packet sniff the domain they use to check for updates and add it to hosts file with a localhost type IP number or any IP number but theirs!

BUT I just looked for any attempt to check for updates using a packet sniffer and saw none, looked in all the available menus and did not find a check for updates option or anything remotely like a manual check for updates... Do I have a different program than you do as mine does not try to access the internet in any unsolicited manner and does not apear to offer either a manual or automatic update check! Logically if it does not include an update check you will not normally find a setting to disable update checking ;)

TK, we have the same program. I didn't say it tried to go online, just that all of the programs I've gotten here have had to have updating disabled, and I didn't find a place to do that on this.

My firewall is set up correctly, and notifies me if something tries to go online (more or less). Microsoft has clearly shown in Windows 10 that they can and will simply bypass both the firewall and hosts file if they wish to - their spyware collects and sends data to them no matter what you do.

No doubt other companies have by now reverse engineered this 'feature' and are also using it.

DD, you are welcome :)

Alan Salls, during a limited time we have a 20% discount in ALL our software.

If you like our programs, hurry up :)

MSD Soft,
Companies typically offer discounts MUCH greater than 20%, for GAOTD customers only!

MSD,
What people are looking for is usually a lifetime license FOR THIS PROGAM ONLY - not for everything you sell or anything like that. We're not asking for you to give away the store, but companies typically give GAOTD customers 40, 60, even 80% off on a lifetime license for the item they are giving away here!
-Alan

Alan Salls, we can offer a 50% discount on a lifetime license of ANY of our programs for visitors coming from GAOTD.

People interested in this offer just ask for instructions to get 50% discount in our support form:
https://www.msdsoft.com/eng/support.htm

Please, state clearly that you come from GAOTD and that want to get instructions for a 50% discount.

Hope this helps :)

Regards

MSD Soft, I have responded to the URL you gave me above asking for this deal on two of your products TWO TIMES since you posted this message, and I've not gotten a response either time. Is this just a hoax or what!?!?
Alan Salls

Alan Salls, thanks for your interest in our 50% discount offer. Sorry for the delay, we had a local holiday. Our support staff will contact you soon :)

Regards

Same experience here.

Martin, thanks for the feedback I can take off my Paranoid hat now ;)

Barney, I suspect you may be being missinformed by some internet conspiracy nuts as Google Analytics cookies are easily avoidable using tracking protection features in IE and other methods in other browsers... any cookie can be deleted as efectively as reformatting a drive and re-installing windows it is no great mystery even flash cookies are scrubbable. I do not permit any website to download the google analytics javascript or jscript files to start with so it cannot generate its urchin cookies or register my machines in its database.

I use SUPERAntiSpyware .com free version. It gets all the tracking cookies off of my computer. I run it several times a day :)

TK,
How do you deal with supercookies, though?

consuella, please define what you mean by "supercookies" as the term is used for all sorts of things most of which are not actually cookies... like rDNS entries have historically been called supercookies as have flash saved local data used in a similar fashion to normal cookies or even network interface MAC numbers. You need to be specific and then I can tell you how I'd deal with them assuming they are ever really an issue and not just a hypothetical privacy threat that has never been used in practice due to some technical limitation like not every IP number has a fixed rDNS entry so cannot be used universally. Or MAC numbers can be changed on most windows based systems as well as other OS's.

TK,
Thank you for your reply. Your comment is, as always, much appreciated.

What I meant by super cookie was a persistent browser cookie that is difficult to detect and remove from your computer.

Regards,

consuella

consuella, I am not aware of any browser cookie that is either difficult to detect or remove, they are by design just an indexed database of individual text files in fixed known locations and no mechanisim exists in any browser that I am aware of to hide any true cookie from its interface or from windows explorer with show system and hidden files and folders enabled. If one is just overwhelmed by the number of cookies in the listing try deleting them all or sorting by certain attributes and selecting groups you want gone! I am aware of a situation whereby a browsers database can become corrupted and partially rebuilt leaving orphan files in both cookies or temproary internet files or history folders and give the impression of hidden super cookies but in reality those orphanned files are not accessible by the browser and are just occupying space and no amount of deleting all by the browser will see them to delete them... just remove them manually in windows explorer and they will be gone. I once had a IE temporary internet folder get out of control and the database corrupted and ended up with over a million files in each of the sub folders and it was not possible to delete the folders under windows! I had to boot into a linux LiveCD and mount the NTFS volume slowly delete the folder contents to bring sanity back to the Windows OS handling of the file system.

I believe there used to be a unique identifier code embeded into google chrome browsers which was practically a so called "supercookie" for google to track user activity everywhere they touched a google server, comodo produced a sanitised chrome fork for a while to improve browsing privacy. Whether google still do that or not I am not up to date with.

TK,

Thank you so much for your very helpful answer.

Best Regards,

consuella

consuella, you are correct, the "supercookies" are hidden inside the windows registries and the only way to remove them is to destroy the windows registries, which in turn, will make your windows inoperable. Google analytics, once installed are not recoverable or can not be removed.

TK, you are mistaken, Google analytics are not recognizable by any anti virus software, they are part of the windows registries and can not be detected nor removed once installed via back door while surfing or searching the Google web sites.

Marshell, have a rethink about this, perhaps?
A quick web search shows that SUPERAntiSpyware gets one of the lowest rankings of all. See for example the review by PCmag.com:
au.pcmag.com/superantispyware-professional-60/23547/review/superantispyware-professional-60

Morris, where on earth are you getting your information? Google analytics as used by websites is a collection of javascript/jscript files the participating web sites html downloads and executes in the mixed context of the host domain and the google analytics source server. NO web browser gives that code permision or ability to write or read the registry in ANY context. That would be an insane breach of the sandboxing of the html and in browser script operation.

I have no idea what you are calling google analytics but it certainly is not what happens within web browsers on windows or OS-X or android! The procedure you are trying to claim happens would constiutute a breach of the UK computer misuse act to install anything via a "back door" without a court ordered warrant.

If google were to try this and succeed they would be taken to court and prossicuted for the crime.

Microsoft and the Mozilla project would not let their browsers be circumvented in such a manner assuming it was even possible, which it is not without the use of malicious code exploiting a NSA remote code execution vulnerability. If these super cookies exist in the registry where are they and what software is able to read or write them?

Or are they so well concealed that nothing can see them, they cannot be found in the online regedit in admin context and cannot be seen using regedit offline under WinPE or under WINE under linux because they are so well hidden... that only magic google can read or write them? Is this the computer version of the Kings new clothes that are invisible to normal and stupid people but only really clever people can see it?
Would you like a mu-metal hat for your birthday?

spyglass, the registration key is valid for any 1.x version of MSD TopDiary. Regards.

Srikar, Got it.

Joern, thanks for your comment. We have tried to state clearly that we do not use cookies, but we use Google Analytics, which traks information in an annonymous way. Regards.

MSD Soft, What type of information do you track?

Fred, we do not track information at all. But use Google Analytics to analyze traffic statistics, and Google tracks information, but as they state in their terms, in an annonymous way. Regards.

MSD Soft, you wrote: "We use Google Analytics to analyze traffic statistics", that statement makes no sense, every webmaster knows where the trafic comes from in just a click. Google Analytics is a spy program that records everything you do online including the user ID and passwords, that does not need to be anylized.

MSD Soft, so YOU DO USE cookies, since you use google analytics service which uses cookies to track users on your site and around the web on other sites also using google analytics... Maybe YOUR sites functionality do not require the enabling of cookies in the visitors browsers but your site does use them to track visitors. Stating you don't when you do is a breach of data protection regs around the world.

MSD Soft, it is not in an anonymous way.. there are unique hashes associated with users accounts browser cookie stores and their IP numbers and the data entered and pages surfed are assciated with those uniquely associated hashes across different websites so any personal info one enters into websites owned by google and using those analytics cookies can be used to track you in a personally identifiable way... that is how they and others offer targeted advertising based upon your personal browsing habits and content posted in webmails and forums.

MSD Soft, data of any description should not be passed to third parties without the users' consent, and if it is included in anyone's terms and conditions then it should be removed. Privacy should be respected!!! Personally I go to great lengths to avoid anything Google.

MSD Soft ..

" which (traks) information in an (annonymous) way " ??

What does that mean ?

TK, just another reason to use a decent VPN, preferably one not based in the U.S., where everything is always for sale.

DD, All a VPN does is change your public IP to that of the VPN endpoint, and if that endpoint IP is shared by other users then your personal data that could still be used to identify you using big data could be muddled with other users of the same VPN endpoint and associate you with activity you may not want to be assiciated with! Also most of these paid for VPN's are private companies and as such are unregulated on how they use/misuse your data on your surfing habits. And since you will no doubt have had to use payment data tied directly to your real world identity then your activity is irrevocably tied to your online activity controlled by a third party usually in a jurisdiction that you would have great difficulty prosicuting under your jusrisdictions data protection laws and of course you will never know if your VPN service has been siezed by a nation states inteligence agency and all your private financial data and online activity is handed to "them" on a platter! Heck your VPN may be owned by a digital rights enforcement company and could be tracking your illegal sharing of copyright content not that you or anyone would do such a thing. Even your online friendly services may be out to get you LOL

TK, all of that is true. But I was thinking more Canada, less Ukraine, when I said "not based in the U.S." :-). I paid with bitcoin.

DD, All major nations nations have their big data mining operations of some sort, either commerce or control based.

You may or may not be aware but Bitcoin and all digital currencies have to be traceable for them to function so although they could not be traced with traditional financial tracking tools they are still trackable and in some ways far more trackable to the fraction of any given bitcoin which is not possible with conventional paper and coinage currency since no one logs the bank notes serial numbers of every note that passes through ones hands and real coins do not even have serial numbers but every digital currency transaction has a traceable hash associated with it that ties it back to its original wallet where it was first created/mined. Nothing online is truely anonymous it may just have layers of complexity added to make things more difficult but for the internet to function it has to be traceable from requestor to service supplier.

TK, it's those layers of complexity I like. I'm not trying to hide anything from anyone except the marketing and sales droids. I bought hearing aid batteries for my mom on Amazon, and next thing I know, I'm being bombarded with ads for adult diapers, walkers, and medical alert systems. That has stopped (for now) with a VPN.

what ? ', tracks and anonymous, hate typos :-(

We cannot track our visitors because we do not use any tracking technology in our website.

We use Google Analytics, and we "trust" Google when they state that visitors cannot be tracked by the use of their technology. Maybe a lot of faith here :-?

Regards.