Last night I installed some new anti-spyware and ran a full scan. Two surprises: first, it picked up 29 tracking cookies that my existing anti-spyware didn't. (Note: Tracking cookies let someone else spy on your computer activities.) This surprised me because the new stuff is available free and the other costs money and isn't as good. That was bothersome. The second surprise was also bothersome. You see, all these cookies are identified to show what company or organization they are linked to, and most of them are names I didn't know. But one stood out: googleadservices

Read that again but break it down: google ad services

I have a question. Does anyone know if this tracking cookie from googleadservices, which my Ewido anti-spyware rated as a 'medium threat' along with all the others, had any legitimate reason to be on my computer? If googleadservices is actually part of Google, which seems very likely, why does this company need to use spyware? A legitimate 'cookie' doesn't get identified as a 'threat', so that one was not for legitimate purposes. (IMHO...grin...)

I'd be very interested in your replies.

And BTW, while I applied for Google adsense I have not completed the contract process to activate an account and so I do not run adsense on this site or anywhere else. Their agreement has loopholes you could drive a truck through -- such as the clause that says if there is any racist, pornographic, offensive or hate-related material whatsoever anywhere on the site I use (ie within SoulCast), they can terminate and take whatever legal action etc etc -- so until I hear that other Soulcast users are actually getting paid I'm not signing up.

Especially if they're spying...

And I humbly suggest you run your anti-spyware if you haven't for a day or two.