Is someone taking screen shots of my computer?

purplelover said:

Wynona,


Open AOL and go to "help" on the toolbar. Select "About AOL". Next is the SECRET STEP. You must then press "CTRL+D" to access a "secret" panel to disable all of the desktop and IM fancy features that are associated with viewpoint. This is the only way to prevent AOL from re-installing Viewpoint at AOL startup.

I did that already. It worked for a few hours and when I opened it the next a.m. It started right back up again. It flashes offline too.

I called AOL yesterday. I told the gal that if she could not hep me I expected her to tell me and put a supervisor on. She never heard of Viewpoint. But had to find out what it was, I sent her the page link you sent me. Those tech' s over there are really drinking the Koolaid. She says the article is not from anyone at AOL. I was not on AOL when I read it. Like if you didn't see it on AOL it couldn't possibly be true.
She told me my AOL IM was shut off. She said I did not have an AOL Virus protection , I would need to download McAfee and it would find anything wrong. So she downloaded it, ran the quick scan and found nothing. She said I needed to run the full scan next. I told her I would and got off the phone. I ran it.....nothing.

Sure wish I knew why the ADWCleaner did not remove those Viewpoint files. I could get used to the constant snapping of screen shots BUT several times they have snapped when I was paying for something at Paypal or on my credit card copying my credit numbers and info. It also clicks when have my favorite places open and email info exposed. How can this be legal???? They do not even have my permission. Is there a website or email I could complain and get them to remove it???

Thanks again. Eileen

The link was from 2004 surely you would think someone had figured this out by now.

Eileen, have you given any more thought to using a different browser and just AOL for your email? Like we discussed before?

purplelover said:

Wynona,


Open AOL and go to "help" on the toolbar. Select "About AOL". Next is the SECRET STEP. You must then press "CTRL+D" to access a "secret" panel to disable all of the desktop and IM fancy features that are associated with viewpoint. This is the only way to prevent AOL from re-installing Viewpoint at AOL startup.

I did that already. It worked for a few hours and when I opened it the next a.m. It started right back up again. It flashes offline too.

Well, drat! I was hoping you'd missed what TC (Tomcat) said to do.

purplelover said:

I called AOL yesterday. I told the gal that if she could not hep me I expected her to tell me and put a supervisor on. She never heard of Viewpoint. But had to find out what it was, I sent her the page link you sent me. Those tech' s over there are really drinking the Koolaid. She says the article is not from anyone at AOL. I was not on AOL when I read it. Like if you didn't see it on AOL it couldn't possibly be true.

You can bet your sweet bippies that she knew exactly what Viewpoint is! If nothing else, this confirms to me that Viewpoint is nothing but spyware; AOL needs it to run so they can know exactly what you're doing when you're online.

As has been in the news lately, Congress has decided it's legal for your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to gather personal information about you and your online habits and sell it to the highest bidder. In other words, we are no longer guaranteed privacy. Therefore, it's in AOL's best interests to fool you into keeping Viewpoint installed. That's why she flat out lied to you.

purplelover said:

She told me my AOL IM was shut off. She said I did not have an AOL Virus protection , I would need to download McAfee and it would find anything wrong. So she downloaded it, ran the quick scan and found nothing. She said I needed to run the full scan next. I told her I would and got off the phone. I ran it.....nothing.

I'm leery of having McAfee installed on your computer; especially since she downloaded and installed it for you. It's probably a trial version, or a version that AOL can charge you for.

purplelover said:

Sure wish I knew why the ADWCleaner did not remove those Viewpoint files. I could get used to the constant snapping of screen shots BUT several times they have snapped when I was paying for something at Paypal or on my credit card copying my credit numbers and info. It also clicks when have my favorite places open and email info exposed. How can this be legal???? They do not even have my permission. Is there a website or email I could complain and get them to remove it???

ADWCleaner most likely did remove Viewpoint; however, the next time you open AOL, it sees that Viewpoint is missing and puts it right back on your computer! It needs to be there so AOL can continue spying on you.

purplelover said:

Thanks again. Eileen

The link was from 2004 surely you would think someone had figured this out by now.

Oh, believe me, they've figured it out . . . they've figured out how to overrule the one thing that worked so far!

I know you like the convenience of AOL; however, since it's perfectly legal for AOL to sell our information, I would opt for the safety of my privacy, rather than convenience.

purplelover said:

tomcat

At this point I am done with Aol. Will use Chrome for my browser and another mail program IF I can get my address book and favorite places transferred there. Linkagogo doesn't list Chrome.

Have a link???

Here's a link for exporting your favorites. I'm still trying to find one for address book.

3 Ways to Transfer AOL Favorites - wikiHow

Here's one for the address book.

Export Email Contacts to CSV file

Here's one to import address book to Gmail (Chrome's Mail)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...kaWbn2cc8X004g

Here's the import of favorites into Chrome, under "From all other browsers".



Import or export bookmarks - Chrome Help