Spyware scanner detects Aureate software in Eudora

Issue:

I ran a spyware scanner program and it claims that something called Aureate is installed on my system.

Solution:

Most of these kinds of spyware scanners flag Eudora as containing the Aureate software based only on the name of Eudora's ad folder -- AdCache. It is only a coincidence that Aureate and Eudora use the same folder name for its advertisement cache. Here is an excerpt from the log from one of these scanners:

Started registry scan.

======================

Suspicious keys found : 0

Started folder scan.

==================

Aureate folder:C:\WINNT\Profiles\whultman\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora\EudPriv\Ads\AdCache

Suspicious folders found : 1

Started file examination.

=========================

Suspicious files found : 0

Scan complete.

Total spyware references found on this system:1

Please note that this particular scanner did not find any of the registry keys associated with Aureate, nor did it find Aureate loaded into memory (Eudora was running in Sponsored mode during this scan). It is basing its findings solely on the presence of a folder called AdCache. Eudora does not use any of the popular ad-serving engines currently available. We use a proprietary ad-server that we developed ourselves in order to ensure that we had complete control over our user's privacy. Please go to http://www.eudora.com/privacy/ to view our privacy statement.

Incidentally, if one of these scanners actually does find Aureate on your system, it is highly likely that some other software loaded it. It is absolutely not a part of Eudora.

KEYWORDS: EPWIN, ADWARE, SPYWARE, CYDOOR, SPY, PRIVACY, TRACK