See responses inline.

--
Thom McGrath
The ZAZ Studios
<http://www.thezaz.com/> AIM: thezazstudios


On Apr 29, 2007, at 12:39 PM, Emile Schwarz wrote:

> I found useful information (for me, not related to REALbasic) on a
> German web site. I was using Firefox or Netscape / Windows XP SP22.
> Since then, I receive continuously mail with German subject names (ex:
> "Montag 30").
>
> a. How is this possible (I do not give any info: I do not give my  
> email
> address).
> b. How can I avoid that ?

Unrelated. Coincidence. Unless you navigated to the site from your  
personal page which lists your e-mail address, and the website  
launched a spider against the referrer - which is all very unlikely -  
it's just a coincidence.

> The last one is much more hard: How can I avoid to get the running
> platform information only ?
> Explanation: I was searching a software and when I found it, I was  
> only
> able to download the Windows version (I was surfing using the Windows
> machine at that time).
> This afternoon, I was surfing using the PowerBook and I wanted to
> download a Windows driver/software (for a third party hard disk) and I
> only get the Mac OS (9 and) X informations...

USER_AGENT header sent in every HTTP request. This header describes  
information about the browser or device being used the make the  
request. There is no contact or sensitive information in it. It's  
very easy for a website to look up, and is of absolutely no security  
risk.

> Yes, these questions are related in a way: HTML Viewer; if I can  
> program
> it in a way to get what I want (or not want: SPAM).

Browsing websites is really not that big of a risk. Doing stupid or  
illegal stuff is usually how this stuff gets into a computer. The  
only perfect security solution is knowledge.

1) Don't download anything you don't absolutely trust
2) Don't use file sharing, pirating, or otherwise illegal websites
3) Use your browser's status bar - it'll usually (this is not fool  
proof) tell you where a link will go. Pay attention to that and your  
address bar.
4) Don't use Outlook Express
5) Javascript is a plague. It can be used to hide the intentions of a  
link or website.
6) Don't use Windows.

Anit-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-Popup, Anti-anything software is useless.  
It'll only *help* isolate or prevent infections that have already  
reached your computer. It's not fool-proof. The best security is to  
prevent this stuff from ever reaching your computer by following the  
steps above.

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