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Description:
Bargain Buddy is a downloaded 'helper'
addition for Internet Explorer and installs directly
on your web browser. It monitors the terms that you
enter into the search bar for matches to a keyword list
of advertisers. When a match is found it displays an
ad to the end user over and above any advertising the
site itself may carry. This program is also able to
monitor the originating servers for updates to software,
keywords and advertisers.
How do you get it?
Bargain Buddy is provided by a company called Exact
Advertising. It can be installed with the Net2Phone
Comm Center, mail.com's Alert center and vCatch an anti-virus
tool. It can also be installed on an unwary
surfer's PC through ActiveX.
In addition, it has been known to have been installed by some versions of LimeWire (a popular filesharing program) and the FavoriteMan parasite.
Details:
Bargain Buddy is a 'Browser Helper
Object' meaning that it will load whenever Internet
Explorer starts, shares its memory and performs actions
in any available windows. It can also detect events,
create windows to display additional information on
a viewed page, monitor messages and actions. There are
many exploits of this technology which search all pages
you view in IE and replace banner advertisements with
other ads, monitor and report on your actions, etc.
Currently it serves up advertising by "DoubleClick" and in general does not contain bargains.
Bargain Buddy is known to have several
variants:
- Bargain Buddy/adp:
Stores its BHO in \program files\adp DLL is apuc.dll
- BarginBuddy/Apuc:
Stores its BHO in \program files\Bargain Buddy DLL
is apuc.dll
- Bargain Buddy/CC_Versn:
Stores its updates in \program files\Bargain Buddy
DLL is cc_versn.dll
How does it Violate
Privacy?
To display an advertisement to a user the
Bargain Buddy program matches the keywords entered with
an advertiser. The site that is visited and the keywords
that are entered can be tracked by DoubleClick with
cookies. Further, there is no privacy policy on the
Exact Advertising site, explaining the further use and/or
distribution of the information that they collect.
** Editors note: This section of the Exact Advertising site was updated on January 27,2004. Essentially the policy admits that they can and will collect your personally identifiable information. Following is an excerpt from the new addition to the Exact Advertising Privacy Policy:
- In general, eXact Advertising, LLC. (“EXACT”) does not collect, store, use or disclose personally identifying information except in very specific instances.
- Information collected by EXACT through some of its other services may be governed by different privacy policies.
- EXACT is not responsible for the information collection or privacy practices or the content of those third party Web sites or applications. .... EXACT does not determine which information those third parties will collect.
- EXACT may collect any or all of the following types of information: (a) traffic or clickstream data, (b) cookies, (c) Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses, or (d) contact information and other personally identifying information.
- To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, EXACT has put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information it collects online. However, data security is a constantly evolving art and science. You should consider any communication that you transmit to EXACT (such as data, questions or answers, comments, or suggestions) as non-confidential, and agree that EXACT will not be liable or responsible if information that belongs to you is intercepted and used by an unintended recipient.
Are there any known
security issues?
Bargain Buddy is capable of self-updating silently through
connections to adp.ikena.com.
Stability problems:
None known at this time.
Terminating
Bargain Buddy:
Important Note:
Bargain Buddy and its variants are known to contain
over 75 different registry keys and and 13 files depending
on the version installed. Basic removal instructions
follow but complete removal with a program such as AdAware
or Pest Patrol is recommended. In addition some programs may re-install themselves if this process has not yet finished - please see the note following removal instructions.
- If you have Bargain Buddy/Version,
skip steps 1 to 3 and follow from step 4.
Older versions of the program can be removed with the add/remove programs feature of the control panel, however this option has become unavailable in newer versions.
Before Bargain Buddy can be removed, the DLL file
must be deregistered. The DLL for program is called
apuc.dll and is located in one of the bin folders
for the Bargain Buddy program. The folders for the
program are usually found under "Program Files/Bargain
Buddy/". To find the DLL you can manually select
the Bargain Buddy folder and inspect the bin folders
to find the file or
Click on "Start > Search > For Files or
Folders > " enter in the appropriate directory
and the filename 'apuc.dll'.
- Once you have located the file, open
up the DOS prompt and travel to the Windows System
Directory. Substitute %WinDir% for the drive and directory
for your version of Windows.
cd "%WinDir%\System"
-
Once in the Windows System directory,
type the following at the DOS prompt:
regsvr32 /u "\Program Files\Bargain Buddy\bin2\apuc.dll
-
If you have Bargain Buddy/Version,
the file that needs to be removed is called 'CC_Versn.dll',
and is located within the 'Net2Phone CommCenter'
folder in Program Files.
open up the DOS prompt and travel to the Windows
System Directory. Substitute %WinDir% for the drive
and directory for your version of Windows.
cd "%WinDir%\System"
- Once in the Windows
System directory, type the following at the DOS prompt:
regsvr32 /u "\Program Files\Net2Phone CommCenter\CC_Versn.dll
- Press at the
same time to open up the Task Manager in Windows.
Delete the entire Bargain Buddy folder.
- Click on Start > Run and type "regedit",
then click "OK". Delete the registry keys
that refer to Bargain Buddy in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows.
You can also remove the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Bargains;
or in the Adp variant HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\adp
instead.
Additional Note: There
are several versions of Bargain Buddy which include
an automatic update feature so that if a full download
does not finish it will then run to download and install
the rest of the program the next time. If this procedure
cannot be completed or hasn't yet run, only the 'bargains'
process will be present. Open up the task manager by
pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill this process. Remove
the 'Run' value mentioned above and then it is possible
to delete the entire Bargain Buddy directory manually.
Bargain Buddy can also be removed with
both Pest Patrol and Adaware.
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