I've done a bit more research now, as so kindly suggested by
Ridley and so generously supported by
Danny. I installed
Proxomitron on 6 December and, after some initial self-induced difficulties, it worked exactly as specified. Web pages load faster because it doesn't allow time-wasting banner ads, etc. - a major consideration in my usual part of the world because of the extremely high cost of timed local calls, which are the basis of my internet usage.
It also stopped the
valueclick and
doubleclick text file cookies dead in their tracks. My spam mail fell away to a trickle of the flood it had been. I then consulted an I.T. guru at my local ISP about the nature of cookies, saying I'd been quite forthrightly informed that ALL cookies are benign.
After he stopped laughing and picked himself up off the floor, he managed to ask me, between chuckles, where I'd heard that load of ****. He said it's true that many cookies are benigh but there are others that are most definitely not so. He further stated that it's often quite difficult, even for I.T. pros, to differentiate between benign and malignant cookies, so the average user has next to no chance of making the distinction.
The safest way is, always, to treat every cookie as hostile, he said. The trouble with that strategy is, of course, that cookies might simply contain passwords and other stuff used by trusted websites, so these are not specifically hazardous. But, a hostile cookie can open a path to your computer so that those "good cookies" can be accessed by the scum that infests cyberspace. The danger here is obvious.
He knows of the Proxomitron program that I installed, but said that even that isn't a foolproof solution for an aggressive cookie.
True to his words, on 12 December, the
valueclick text file cookie found it's way back onto my computer. My spam mail increased within hours and, despite my every effort to kill it with Ad-Aware as soon as it appears, my spam mail has now
TREBLED. If anything, it is at much higher levels than previously, though this might only be due to the Christmas silly season, of course.
However, the fact remains that this cookie has successfully by-passed Proxomitron every time I've logged onto PPRuNe since 12 December. The fact also remains that my spam mail, some of which is highly offensive and contained links that would certainly not be tolerated on PPRuNe, has increased. It seems that, while PPRuNe management rightly discourages that sort of thing on their site, they are happy for its' subscribers to receive it by e-mail from the ads that they've authorised.
As I've said many times before - and even once before on THIS thread (and was duly ignored by both Ridley and Danny) -
I understand the reason for the ads. I've even found one or two that were of use to me. Maybe this time, they will read and digest it. However, it upsets me that they seem to apply a double standard that says :- no, that stuff isn't okay on the site but, yes, we really want all our subscribers to get the full blast of it by e-mail.
I use two other bulletin boards on as regular a basis as I use this one. I ran an experiment to see if any of these cookies come from them. I did that very simply by first running Ad-Aware, to check for and clear any of those cookies that may have existed. I then visited each site and, before visiting another site, ran Ad-Aware again. The only site that gave me those cookies was PPRuNe and I ran that test several times in 7 consecutive days.
It seems that the
doubleclick text file cookie hasn't re-emerged but that one only seems to turn up about once a week anyway. Thus I might be yet to receive it again. But it is now VERY clear to me that the
valueclick text file cookie is aggressive in invading my computer and, as my spam mail has multiplied after each penetration by it, I am forced to conclude that it is far from benign.
It should, by now, be clear that I'm far from hysterical about this, but that I am deeply concerned about it. Perhaps our good friend Ridley might now care do do some research of his/her own on this subject. I look forward to the result of that research.