I am as sceptical about freeware as anyone, and use adaware etc to look for spyware (by the way I dont trust adaware itself much - its updates are much too infrequent for a start). My firewall indicates that Webwasher needs to connect to the internet to work - maybe the puter gurus out there can say if such a connection is in fact a prerequisite for this type of program. . .I guess there is no way of telling if Webwasher sends a DAT file of url's or whatever, or if it simply needs to connect to the web in order to intercept incoming animated gifs, ads, cookies or whatever before they appear on the screen. . .I have my internet security settings high (on IE6)and specifically block many cookies/ domains. I can see from my temp internet files/ cookies that not much is allowed on my computer. . .However, as I think you are suggesting, I guess it is possible for Webwasher to compile lists of urls visited even as it blocks the cookies/ urls etc. .Having said all that, it works very well, has no intrusive features, and I have no complaints.