Do screen savers bring spam?

Does downloading free screen savers put me on lots of spam lists?

 

You mean e-mail spam? I'll say this... if you gave them your e-mail address in exchange for downloading the screen saver, then I'd say yes. If you gave them your e-mail address for any reason, I'd say yes.

 

Yeah, I figured I shouldn't give out my e-mail address. I meant I wondered if the freebie would have some kind of embedded thingy that would somehow generate a bunch of unwanted stuff on my computer.

 

it's very possible. What you are referring to is called spyware/adware.

 

Thanks

Thanks. I know screen savers aren't needed. But they're fun, aren't they? I like to do them at special times, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've always wondered about the privacy policies--do the companies actually abide by them. Also, I use Ad-aware, so would that plus common sense be enough protection?

 

I would imagine companies and such would have to abide by their privacy policy... otherwise they could have lawsuits and other legal matters brought against them. The thing to watch for in a privacy policy is the double talk (or whatever), fine print, and fancy words that they use in hopes that the people that read it don't have the vocabulary to understand it.

As for spyware and nasty things like that, Ad-Aware is good protection against it. Only thing you may want to consider is... maybe get one more spyware remover, like Spybot, just to double check and be sure. Also, make sure you keep the reference files for both spyware programs up-to-date. This will ensure that you remove the latest known spyware.

I think that, if you're concerned about spam in your e-mail, it would be the e-mail address you gave away and not spyware. It's always good to do a scan for spyware every once in a while, though... just to keep things running clean, fast, and smooth.

 

Exactly what I was gonna say.

 

You folks are fantastic! I never fail to get satisfaction when I ask questions.
I know that many of you think a second anti-spyware program is a good idea. I guess I'd better get one. I do keep Ad-aware up to date and I use it every Monday, plus right after I download anything.
I put that list of online e-mail providers in My Favorites and will be checking it out.