Let me preface this: Yes, I have left PPT, blah blah,
however, I discovered this when looking for something I was linked to on the main site, and was confronted with this delightful pop up:
(Full screen
here)
A number of things concern me about this.
- This is a deceptively good mock up of the standard 'Computer' folder, except for the fact that my CD/DVD drive is E:/ and not, in fact, F:/ as the screenshot indicates.
- Whilst I am well aware that anyone can find my location down to my suburb from my IP address (which I have blacked out), for those who may not be aware - say, the younger audience which Neopets, and in turn fansites such as PPT target and attract - can very easily compromise their computer.
- That pop-up box in the middle of the screen? Does not go away. I have tried clicking "Cancel", I have tried clicking "X", I have tried closing the tab, I have tried changing to a different tab, and I cannot. I am just very thankful that I was not in the middle of anything important in the other tabs, as I had no way of removing this obnoxious pop-up, short of killing the firefox.exe process directly.
- Lastly, the most obvious and concerning: I do not have any spyware (well, short of tracking cookies) or viruses on my computer. I have anti-virus software running which informs me immediately should I inadvertently download a suspect file. I have two different spyware programs which I run at least weekly. So, why is a pop-up trying to get me to download a "critical security software update" when all will do is compromise my computer?
I understand that advertisements are often necessary to enable sites, particularly large ones with significant bandwidth drains, to continue to exist, however it may be prudent to screen these ads. Particularly the one I have addressed I feel should be removed as a matter of urgency. I would hate to see the rumours of spyware on this site become true.
~ Alex