My name is Paula and I work at Comet Systems. I apologize in advance for the length of this posting but I would like to thoroughly address each comment that has been raised about our software. Also, I noticed that Sailor has recently posted a partial response that we had previously sent him. My apologies for the repetition; I felt that it would be beneficial to have all of the info in one centralized location.
In Sailor’s first message (which I believe started this particular string), he stated,
“Some site I visited installed (without any action on my part and without asking permission) in my computer a program called Comet Cursor.”
It is actually absolutely impossible to install our software, or any other Active X control without asking the user’s permission, provided you have not altered your computer’s default security settings. If it appeared to do so, it means (at least in all the cases that we have seen to date) that your Internet Explorer security settings are set to some form of “pre-accept”. This, I assure you, is not a “lie” (as was alluded to by Chief Crunch).
Please give me a chance to explain a little more. Normally when you visit a
Website that hosts our technology an installation window (a Verisign box) will
pop up and ask you if you would like to download the software. The installation
window’s default is set to “no” and you have to explicitly click on “yes” for the
software to install. It sounds like many of you never saw this box. If this is the case, you should check your IE security. It is most likely set to “Low”. If it is set to “Low” then you have by default accepted any and all software (not just ours) from any Website you visit. I would recommend that you check these settings so that
you can prevent “surprises” such as this from occurring in the future. Moreover, failure to perform these changes will continue to make your system extremely susceptible to numerous common viruses and problems. Maybe now would also be the time to add that My Comet Cursor IS NOT a virus, as was also indicated by Sailor.
As for your security settings, here are four places where you should check:
- In IE, under Tools -> Internet Options,
Select the Security tab. There will be a slider
which changes Security level for this zone.
This should be set to Medium or higher. Low will
allow downloads without your permission.
And
- In IE, under Tools -> Internet Options,
Select the Security tab. There will be a
Custom Level button. When you select it
there will be a number of radio buttons to select.
The top one (Download Signed Active X Controls)
should be set to Prompt (not Enable).
And
- In IE, under Tools -> Internet Options,
Select the Security tab. There will be a green check with “Trusted Sites”
Select that, and then the Sites button.
In the Websites field you will be able to see all of the sites you
have selected as “Trusted”. The site from which you installed may be here.
And finally,
- In IE, under Tools -> Internet Options,
Select the Content tab.
Click the Publishers button in the Certificates area.
Check to be sure that Comet or the site downloaded from are not located here.
Secondly, (and this would be in response to Curt C’s and OpalCat’s posting) we DO NOT track our users. There have been a lot of rumors going around saying that Comet Systems tracks its users and that the Comet Cursor is Spyware. This is simply not true.
Some inaccurate information appeared in late 1999 regarding our information practices. Regretfully several organizations picked up the story before contacting us. Once their articles appeared we contacted them, and explained what is really going on. Realizing their mistake many of those publications have since issued retractions or corrections, including the Christian Science Monitor, Industry Standard, ABC News, PC Magazine, ZDNet, Time Digital, and Business Week. I’d like to invite you to read some of the ones that are online:
Read our complete Privacy Policy </help/privacy.shtml>.
Read “Media didn’t give Comet Systems a chance to explain” </press/articles/christsci991209/index.html> in the Christian Science Monitor, 12/9/99.
Read “Privacy Story Moves Like a Comet” <http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,8100,00.html> in the Industry Standard, 12/6/99.
Read why the Comet Cursor is not “spyware” <http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2599169,00.html> according to ZDNet’s Anchor Desk, 7/10/99.
Regarding “Spyware” – As close as we can tell this rumor started on a gentleman named Steve Gibson’s website (GRC | OptOut -- Internet Spyware Detection and Removal ) We suspect that he read some of the articles that we referred to above, and leapt to conclusions. The Comet Cursor is not “spyware” even by Gibson’s own definition. On his site, Gibson lists seven criteria that would qualify something as being “spyware”. The Comet Cursor meets none of these criteria. In fact, if you look at Gibson’s own compliance chart, you will see that he hasn’t even evaluated the Comet Cursor (check it out at: GRC | OptOut -- Index of Known Spyware ). We have written him, requesting that he research our software so that he can realize his mistake, but regrettably he has not replied.
Then (to continue the saga
some major news organizations picked up the “spyware” story (privacy and the Internet is such a hot topic that people seem to jump on a story before doing their complete due diligence). Again we contacted these organizations and informed them of their mistake. Bound by journalistic integrity, they did do research and realized that they were in error. Check out ZDnet’s spyware retraction:
July 10, ZDNet Anchor Desk:
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2599169,00.html
Again, with all of these rumors flying around, I can sympathize with your confusion. Often times there is so much information (particularly on the Web), that it’s difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. If you have any questions about any of this we would deeply appreciate it if you would contact us. It has been an uphill battle for us to combat these untrue rumors and we are very thankful when people give us a chance to explain what is really going on (thanks to Alfonso and Sailor’s most recent message).
I hope that I have helped to further clarify any and all misunderstandings that have arisen as a result of these messages. If not, please feel free to contact me personally and I will answer any additional questions or concerns that you may have.
Paula
Comet Systems