Question

If I understand.. you are wondering what Wincustomize is gathering about the visitors.

The only thing I know they are gathering is everyone's Christmas wish list so they can pass it along to Santa.

We need to know your darkest secrets so we can blackmail you and retire to the Bahamas...

Either that or it's a cookie thing for amending such things as the little envelope icons to show you which threads you have already visited, etc.

One or the other....I forget which...

I don't think it is a christmas list for Santa and I have no dark secrets on my machine But, there must be something on our machines if Wincustomize uploads about 150k of information.

I'm using Spy-Watcher on my machine which keeps an eye on my internet cookie. It alerts me all the time when I come here.

3:32:56 p.m. Warning! HitBox Cookie detected: [email protected][1].txt

3:32:56 p.m. Automatically Removed! HitBox Cookie: [email protected][1].txt

Scroll down to the bottom of this very page and you will see there is a hitbox counter.

Nothing sinister, just a method of counting page views.
It won't bite, nor will it reformat your harddrive.
Windowblinds itself has an option to inform Stardock of what skin you are using...so that 'popularity' of a skin can be measured...but even that is an opt-in process.

You'll get cookie activity from many database sites such as this...but it is harmless...

I LOVE cookies! What's not to love about a cookie?

Hmmm. You *CAN* clean your Temp Internet Cache out every so often and there are progs that will auto delete a set cookie once you've left the site (by configuring it to do just that, zoneAlarm for instance which you can not only configure to kill cookies but to stop the constant and utterly *annoying* warnings).

Jafo is wrong...they are waging a secret internet sp--sp---sp---sss-ppp...*gurgle, choke, gasp*

CIA-D0D-CTF-MI5-NSC-ASIO-ASIS-FBI-KGB and SMERSH collect information about WinCusto visitors!
They're REALLY REALLY interested in people who frequent a site devoted to PC eye candy! Not!
All information is routed directly to Bill Gates,Steve Jobs and OBL!
Ahhhhh.......nothing like a whiff of paranoia to get the day started.

mombat...you have violated National Security....we will now have to kill you....sorry for any inconvenience this may cause...

....'mombat'.....I need a beer...

That's the 'murrican' arm of the family Jafo.
"Mombat, Dadbat and Babybat"!
Other offshoots, Cricketbat, Baseballbat, Ping-PongBat (the Chinese breed), VampireBat, PoliceBaton,and it's close relative, RiotBaton!
Now,where did Madame Lash hide my medication?

Thanks all for the information. I now have ZoneAlarm on my machine and its working well. I get no more alerts.

YAY! Glad it worked out for you!

With a desktop like yours SBNZ I can understand why paranoia kicks in every now and then.

Small aside, (Great desktop Ande).

Just a photograph and a great APB Skin DS.com.

I have have updated my desktop pic now... very yummy.

I'm inclined to think of "yummy" as anything chocolate coated...call me prejudiced.

I don't know about collecting secret information but there is an obsession with shoe size info

It's a 'bloke' thing .....

I am going to ask this in the hopes it will get an answer.

Where is the milk that should come with the cookies?

The milk? Didn't you get the memo? BYOB!

lol, if you have to ask someone what they are 'taking' from your machine, then your problem is crummy security, not a malicious web site. You better know what is accessable, because the average person that steals info from you won't have a messageboard to answer your queries.

True, I did have crummy securty and I have fixed that problem with ZoneAlarm. It tells me what Cookie is being blocked and if it is a securty risk. I also use Spy-Watcher. So now I can have my good cookie and eat them. yummy

There is a setting in the internet options which will give you a warning if anyone wants to store a cookie.

It will block all cookies until you say it is ok. Nice feature but many many dialog boxes appear.

You can also set Internet Properties to individually allow or block cookies from the sites that you visit. If in doubt, block it out. Sites like this one, DA and other good sites that need to use cookies you can set to alway allow them.

What is the worse that could happen with a stored cookie that was bad?