Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Tracking cookie ATDMT: unethical Microsoft?

Why do you think it's Microsoft?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081214080238AAEj8to says ADTMT is an advertising company. I see no link with Microsoft.

The above article suggest deleting cookies automatically. Then your browsing behavior can't be tracked. Hardly an annoyance, if it's done automatically. I think ccleaner will work also.

Kees

with it's cookie Manager can block this. You can give each site permission to install ONLY "session" (temporary, removed by CCleaner)cookies or NO cookies or as set by standard cookie rules you set within the program of the browser. Sea Monkey also offers this.

Basically, you may need to "tighten-up" you cookie permissions to avoid 3rd party cookies. This particular cookie can be had from almost any site IF your cookie permissions are wide open.

Thanks for this tip, but ADTMT does not behave as an 'ordinary' cookie. It appears 'embedded' within Outlook Connector and Hotmail and reinstalls itself everytime Outlook or Hotmail are switched on. Deleting ADTMT from the registry has no effect, nor has any other known tip or trick, such as for instance installing MVPS Hosts file.

yes, actually, msn is installed, like adware/malware in your winsows operating system, there is a small light peice of software from some woman who used to work for msn/windows, who dosnt like them anymore and she has a link to a peice of software that totally rids your pc of the embedded msn software. it certainly seems to apear each time msn is opened.when i can remeber the link to her page will post it here and see what happens.

Why do people think Microsoft is involved? Because it is true!

Don't take my word for it; see for yourself.

1) Visit the link below to the microsoft site for the IE9 beta.
http://windows.microsoft.com/ie9

2) Hover your mouse cursor over the download button.

3) View the target URL in the status bar at the bottom of your browser.

4) Note that it is a redirect to ATDMT.com where the malware is installed.

5) If you have included ATDMT.com in your restricted sites list in IE, you will not be redirected there and the malware will not install.

Since the behavior of this unsolicited and unapproved add-on includes tracking behavior, it is classified as malware. I don't know about you, but most people find that sort of behavior intolerably unethical.

tried clicking the link you suggested, and hovered cursor on download link, it didnt seem to show any redirect/connection to atdmt. though that may be my location?
i must say, ANY time i log into MSN i get avg giving atdmt warnng message. so there IS a link to MS.

I use Advanced System Care Pro. It finds the MALWARE and will delete it. So will SpyBot. I've used Malwarebytes Pro to no avail. I've used BitDefender Total Security and now have ESET Smart Security 5. I've ran these in safe mode but it's useless. I've used Hijack This with no success.

This is Microsoft trying to force people to use Internet Explorer, IMO. The cookies only show up in Chrome and Firefox but not IE. Hmmm? And if you block third party cookies, you can't get to your Live/Hotmail inbox. This IS making my new computer act buggy and is a huge nuisance.

Thank you Microsoft for making my decision easier. The next computer I buy will be a Mac. I will never by a PC again due to their forced, unethical intrusion into MY computer. It should be illegal!

Thank you Donna.
Being unfamilar (read total dummy) with "host" files, mvps and hphosts appear daunting exercises - which one do you recommend for a novice (who wants to avoid ending up with a pc in a miserable state)?
Should I both download Spybot and SpywareBlaster?
Erik

these cookies under discussion will also misrepresent themselves as
Session Only cookies to Mozilla's Cookie Mgr. They're Not!

I had them marked as accepted ONLY as Session Cookies because you cannot enter Hotmail with them fully blocked.

After leaving Hotmail yesterday & running CCleaner as usual. Shut down over night. After boot-up today, todays scan w/ SAS found 7 of them still on the machine and quarantined them. This without going to Hotmail yet today! Noted: MBAM scan immediately before SAS scan, did NOT find these 7 items. Sandy.

SpywareBlaste by http://www.javacoolsoftware.com can block that kind of tracking cookies.

You can open SpywareBlaster and you should see some tracking cookies that it can block in IE and Firefox browsers.

"Because it blocks it without user-interactionby Donna Buenaventura - 9/2/09 10:08 AMIn Reply to: Spyware Blaster? by hogndogYou can open SpywareBlaster and you should see some tracking cookies that it can block in IE and Firefox browsers."

um, i opened the spywareblaster to the window for block.unblock cookies but there was NO refeence to atdmt in the blocked list at all. and, if i am not mistaken, no way to add it to the list.
any advice?

This cookie is created when IE is running and Windows Live Mail Client is opened. This is the answer I got from Microsoft - I don't believe them and think this cookie is capturing marketing information that they feel is very important and don't want it blocked. I have reported it to the FTC. If more people would do the same, something will be done - they require massive complaints.
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Microsoft comment:
I can assure you that the cookies are cosmetic. The function that the Windows Live allocations use for cookie placement is InternetSetCookie. If you look up this public function on MSDN you can see how works.



http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa385107(VS.85).aspx



I also want to point out the caution statement on the page.:



Caution InternetSetCookie will unconditionally create a cookie even if Block all cookies is set in Internet Explorer. This behavior can be viewed as a breach of privacy even though such cookies are not subsequently sent back to servers while the Block all cookies setting is active. Applications should use InternetSetCookieEx to correctly honor the user's privacy settings.



With that said the change will be to use the InternetSetCookieEx function, and as you see it will honor the users privacy settings. A fix is scheduled to be released in the next update cycle for the Windows Live applications.

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By the way - this was over a month ago and I have seen nothing released from Microsoft - again proof they are hiding something and want these cookies out there at any risk - please - everyone report this to the FTC, your senators and congressianal representatives - Microsoft must me reined in.

yes, i have found that each time i am dumb enough to use MSN messenger, i get my AVG issuing a tracking cookie warning for atdmt. however when i clikc "heal selected threats", it does NOTHING.
will enjoy watching this thread to see what is to be learned about this.
though it does seem that when i open cookie folders and atdmt is there it does delete.
hope some one with much know how tells us more about this cookie and the whys and whats.