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What Is A Data Miner?

nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,013 ******
edited August 2003 in General Discussion
I run Ad-Aware from time to time, and most of the files it finds are called data miners. What the heck is that and what does it do?

SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
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    DancesWithSheepDancesWithSheep Member Posts: 12,938 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Data miners (or refiners) are transformer-type software modules that allow you to extract text, images, barcodes, etc., from a logical page in a document and use them for other forms/documents without having to separately convert their associated input/output formats.

    After doing a google on "Ad-Aware", I realize that what I was talking about has nothing whatever to do with your question (however, I do work with a software company that actually creates the type of software I described).
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    offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    In terms of Ad-Aware, data miners are any little programs that collect information about the way you use your computer, the sites you visit, the things that interest you when you go surfing the 'net, and so forth.

    The whole point of mining this kind of data is of course to BE ABLE TO TRANSMIT IT BACK every now and then to the point of origin of the application -- in order to do targeted marketing to you as a potential customer/consumer. Data mining software is generally installed without your permission, and reports back to its source in the background while you are online.

    Most users of my acquaintance equate data miners with "spyware," because the operation and effect is about the same. If you let a data miner run on your machine, eventually you will see the results in advertising, e-mail, or even banner ads focused to your interests on your favorite web pages.

    Certain free utilities which claim to be "ad-supported" will not run without their data miners in place, so if you delete 30 or so data miners using your Ad-Aware program, you may find that programs like your free Download Accelerator, or Kazaa or SuperBot, will no longer function. Once you learn which data miners to leave in place, you can still delete most of them from your PC with AAW and eliminate the majority of unwanted data mining software.

    T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

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    spectre7spectre7 Member Posts: 965 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Slight addition to what Offeror said; if you discover that "X"-program will not work after you run ad-aware and delete the nosey little buggers, there is sometimes an alternative to letting the advertisers have their way. With most popular "ad-supported" programs, there are advertisement free, slightly modified version available. Kazaa-lite for example or a cracked version of Download Accelerator.

    Typos and profanity, oh my! http://www.funky-town.org
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