Is anyone else getting these warnings here?

Question

Sometimes, upon opening up a new question, a specific Target ad ("Things you love at low prices. The Weekly Ad is here!") will show up and with it I am immediately presented with a warning from my anti-virus software (Avira Personal, FYI). It pops up saying something about an unauthorized access attempt and I usually just click "Deny Access" without bothering to read any more.

I haven't noticed anything showing up on any of my frequent virus and spyware scans, so I'm not unduly worried, but I was just wondering: have any of you had similar warnings here on Y!A, specifically with those Target ads?

Answer 1

Block "ad.yieldmanager.com" it contains popup spyware.



In Firefox - add filter to Adblock Plus



In IE - Tools>Internet Options>Security>Restricted Sites

Answer 2

Get yourself a free copy of Malwarebytes from http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and update it and run a scan with it. It looks like your Avira is doing it's job well but to be double sure run a scan with Malwarebytes.

I also use the free McAfee site adviser. It has checked websites for all the nasties and will mark the safe ones as OK. It's amazing how many sites it flags as suspicious.

Answer 3

No not happening to me. I just find the ad's annoying but don't get anyone trying to access my PC. BTW I run Kaspersky Internet Security Suite (just in case you were wondering). Hope some-one else can help. If not make an enquiry with the official YA team. Good luck

Answer 4

I use Firefox and have the AddBlock Plus add on to block the ad which shows up under your name on the left side of the Yahoo Answers page.

Answer 5

Not recently, but one evening a few weeks ago the Y!A site was causing my Avast on-access scanner to flag up loads of warnings about malicious content detected. It was allowing the text and static images to load, but blocking the various r.h.side-ads.

It's not done it since... Very odd!

Answer 6

I haven't seen popups on Yahoo but I used to get them on Time magazine's website like crazy. The New York Times is also bad about popups. So I had to block them both.

Answer 7

These are attempts at underhanded betrayal of trust.

Yahoo! & Google breach of trust to it's patrons reached a new low.

Both services submissively bowed to advertising conglomerates, by adopting 'phorm' inspired "targeted advertising"; a 'data siphon' method that directs your clickstream to advertisers, and builds a portfolio on your surf habits.

This may make your browser display pop-ups which you have no control over, and may in fact do many other un-requested actions with your entire system.



Google itself has spyware.

From their Privacy Center page

(http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html)

"No personally identifiable information – We don’t collect or serve ads based on personal information without your permission."

Notice the last 3 words...yet it is specifically an "Opt Out" condition!



And Gmail, once perceived to be 'safe', actually scans all your mail & then selects advertising based on the content. It's "for your own good...."

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_privacy.html



"Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie on our Google content network ..."

Opt out of DoubleClick here:

http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx



These guys are the used car salesman of the internet, very 'slippery' characters burying their methods, details & opt out choices with layer after layer, page after page of non-sense & merry-go-round tactics plus non-functioning links, etc.

All I can say is keep trying & get as many of these tracking portfolios killed as you can.



Yahoo! calls their invasion of privacy "Matched advertising", and it stems from the 'Network Advertising Initiative' (NAI), a conglomerate of advertising kingpins and requires "Opt Out" to defray the advertising tsunami from Yahoo's partners in this server based spyware/adware (and to stop them from creating a 'profile' of you).



"Opt out" sign in pages;

Yahoo here: http://info.yahoo.com/relevantads/

Google here: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

NAI garbage here: http://networkadvertising.org/managing/o...

DoubleClick here: http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx



For more detail of this blatant violation of trust, and it's creeping privacy invasion implications, listen to Security Now podcast #153, http://twit.tv/sn153