Cookie-cutter is made to order for Macs
Macintosh users surfing the Web are no more immune than Windows users to cookies, spyware and Internet clutter such as pop-up ads.
These electronic files sneak on to computer hard drives to track a user's surfing habits. Their presence, once simply annoying, has become a serious privacy concern.
The call to rid the world of this scourge has been answered by sofware firm Aladdin Systems. The company this month released Internet Cleanup 1.0 for Macintosh, a privacy tool that puts Mac users back in control.
The program's NetBlockade feature stops those pop-up and pop-under windows, and blocks banner ads.
A feature called SpyAlert detects spyware, which is typically installed to track keys that are pressed and to capture screen shots to see what applications are used, what files are being modified or created, and what Web pages are being viewed.
When spyware is detected, the program asks whether it should be deleted or saved because, in some cases, users might want to keep the spyware on their machine. SpyAlert gives them the comfort of knowing that these Internet programs' actions are being closely monitored.
Cookie Tosser enables users to both remove and manage cookies from preferred Web sites in the system. SecureDelete provides a digital document shredder that permanently deletes unwanted files. Cleanup also locates and removes cache files and history files created by the browser.
Cleanup requires eight megabytes of free memory and 3MB of free hard disk space on machines that run Mac OS 9.1 Carbon Lib' 1.6, Mac OS 10.1.5 and higher versions.
