Did anyone else get a pop-up box with Bush that said "Save US Healthcare"

[bigbillhaywood]

when going on to the DU site? I just did, it was an electronic petition of some kind for capping medical malpractice lawsuits. Is this something DU is endorsing, or did I get spyware on my computer from this site somehow? Either way, it's BULLSHIT. Either DU is supporting these greedy doctors whining about being sued for shit they deserve to be sued for, or there are serious security issues with the site. But before I jump to conclusions, has anyone else seen this?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i sure didn't you sure it wasn't from the last site you visited? n/t

[bigbillhaywood]

6. No, the last site I visited was the Red Sox site. And I haven't been

perusing right-wing, porn or other malicious sites (at least not lately)

[Catch22Dem]

2. You forgot about the third (and most likely) option

Some site you went to put some spyware on your box. I'm 99.9% sure it doesn't have the slightest thing to do with DU.

[swag]

3. Sounds to me like you had just visited Drudge or some

other nutjob site.

[Lars39]

4. yes, that popped up for me, too.

You might want to post this in the Ask the Administrator forum, to see if it's something Skinner needs to take care of.

on edit: DU was the first site I had visited this morning when it popped up.

[bigbillhaywood]

15. I did and no one has responded. I saw another post that complained of a

"right-wing pop-up". The administrator said it was either spyware, or a pop-up when you first log on that they "have no control over".

[keopeli]

5. It's not from DU, it's from AD software on your computer.

To rid yourself of this niusance, use SpyBot, free software.

SpyBot Search and Destroy

Download a copy here:

http://download.com.com/3000-8022-10194058.html?tag=lst-0-3

I saw the ad also, and it was really repulsive. It sends a form letter to congress declaring your support for tort reform, under the guise of "Don't take my doctor away from me." What a misleading bunch of crap!

Keo

Edit: I don't operate DU, but I had the same issue on my computer and believe that the AD was not from DU. For a definitive response, seek help from the administrators. :)

[bigbillhaywood]

8. Thanks n/t

[William Seger]

17. Yes, run SpyBot and REPORT BACK HERE what it finds!

These adware fuckers have figured out how to silently download their popup servers when you just visit a site. Some of them attach to your browser and watch the URLs that you visit, and then pop up supposedly "relevant" ads -- typically, a competitor's product or service.

If someone having this problem can run SpyBot and report back with the name of the ad server it finds, we should bring it to the attention of the media that the RNC is using these sleazy scumbag services to "get their message out."

I read a couple weeks ago that congress is getting ready to investigate adware abuse. Of course, looking at the CAN-SPAM act and the apparent lack of enforcement of even those inadequate measures, don't hold your breath hoping congress will actually do anything useful. But exposing the RNC slime-balls for using them would be a public service.

[bigbillhaywood]

18. I already ran it and deleted all tracking software, so somebody else

having this problem (and who is just a tad more computer-savvy than I am) should give it a shot and report back.

[icymist]

26. That's some great software.

I use it often and swear by it!
:yourock:

[coloradodem2005]

7. I got one yesterday.

You might want to look into this.

[Jane Austin]

9. I've gotten several connected to liberal web sites.

What's gong on?

[Zorra]

10. I got one yesterday. It really surprised me.

[Arger68]

11. Yep, a couple days ago I think.

[dweller]

12. it's a popup that will show up

when you login to DU, and they have no control over what comes up.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=120x17042

just kill the f*cker as soon as it tries to pop up, that's what i do, and i've yet to see an ad.

dp

[bigbillhaywood]

16. UNACCEPTABLE

DU should exercise control over the content of the pop-up ads. What's next, a "take action against abortion" pop-up? What's worse is that some people may think DU is endorsing the issues these pop-ups are about, like medical tort reform.

I encourage everyone who has seen this or similar pop-ups while logging on to DU to notify your concern to the moderators. If DU is allowing these pop-ups, it is unethical and counterproductive to the aims of DU.

[dweller]

19. what part of the mod's response

do you not understand?

They are aware of it, they have no control of it, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to over load them with complaints about it.

Calling the mods or DU unethical is out of line, and if anything is 'unacceptable', that would be.

dp

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TOhioLiberal]

22. it might be....

...a thing with their web server. kinda like those stupid ads you get on geocities sites. That is probably what Skinner or elad meant by having no control over it.

Get a popup blocker (like google's). problem solved!

[bigbillhaywood]

23. Problem solved for me, but what about others? At first when I saw the

pop-up, I thought it was some sort of political action alert from DU. I figured it out pretty quick, but others might not. After all, medical liability tort reform is not a "hot-button" issue, some DUers might be inclined to think (if they just briefly scan the ad) "Oh there's a picture of Bush and it says Save US Healthcare when I log on to the DU site, I'll enter my information and send a notice to my congressperson".

[William Seger]

24. But it probably isn't DU

You're assuming that the popups are being downloaded from this site or a site that's linked to from here. That's probably not the case. These adware servers are programs that can get downloaded from anywhere without you even being aware of it. They're really viruses. They attach to your browser and they put themselves in your system startup. Many of them go to incredible lengths to make it hard to remove them. Some of them reinstall themselves after you think you've removed them.

Their typical purpose is to run silently in the background watching the sites you visit and then pop up a competitor's ad. Whoever ordered those "Save US Healthcare" ads undoubtedly specified a list of "liberal" target sites.

If it's an adware server running on your machine, there's absolutely nothing DU can do to control it.

[bigbillhaywood]

27. But it may be, I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what it is, and

what can be done about it. All I'm saying is that whatever the case may be, simply saying "there's nothing to be done" without further explanation is insufficient in my humble opinion

[JPJones]

13. Or use Netscape w/pop-up blocker

[ConsAreLiars]

14. The Firefox browser blocks pop-ups

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

If some site actually has useful pop-ups, you can set Firefox to allow those, but the default behavior is to block them. There are lots of reasons to prefer Firefox over Internet Exploiter - this is just one of them.

[ewagner]

21. Yep!

Second or third time it's popped up.

[LittleApple81]

25. Anybody using Google's toolbar? It allows you to block popups. It works

for me.

[TOhioLiberal]

28. Thats what I use.

n/t

[William Seger]

29. Yep, but I don't think any of these popup blockers stop the adware garbage

The Google tool is great. Just having the search function there is handy, but I especially like the feature where you can step through the search result sites without going back to the result listing page. The search history is very useful, too.

I haven't tried it, but I doubt that the tool bar will block popups from these adware servers. "Normal" popups are opened by JavaScript in the HTML that the browser is executing, but these adware popups are being opened directly by a separate process that's just "evesdropping" on the browsers.

Even if it could block those popups, you really want to get rid of any adware servers running on your machine because they really bog down your browser. In one extreme case I saw, a co-worker had two or three of those things installed at the same time, and the browser was so slow it was nearly useless.