1

I borrowed a laptop from my friend who is network administrator, he installed a tracking cookie in my system and he knows everything I do on laptop. Every time I make any payment or transaction he calls me up for fun and ask to order extra stuff for him as well.

It was a joke earlier but now I am bit concern with my privacy. How can I find and remove the tracking cookie?

Ravi Kumar Rana
  • 11
  • 1
  • 2
    Does this answer your question? [How can I remove malicious spyware, malware, adware, viruses, trojans or rootkits from my PC?](https://superuser.com/questions/100360/how-can-i-remove-malicious-spyware-malware-adware-viruses-trojans-or-rootkit) – Tetsujin Jul 24 '20 at 07:42
  • 1
    Tomayto/tomahto - this is not a 'tracking cookie' this is spyware, pure & simple. Your friend could be sacked or even arrested & charged in some jurisdictions. – Tetsujin Jul 24 '20 at 08:26
  • @Tetsujin Erm, he borrowed the laptop. The owner is entitled to run whatever software he wants on it. – DavidPostill Jul 24 '20 at 18:57
  • @DavidPostill - maybe under some jurisdictions. Under UK law it is a criminal offence. Data Protection Act 2018 - *"Knowingly obtaining personal data without the consent**. If it were a regular company machine, consent would be part of the contract of employment. Handing it to a private individual with spyware is a clear criminal act. – Tetsujin Jul 25 '20 at 07:26
  • @Tetsujin "The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how your personal information is used by **organisations, businesses or the government**." Source [Data protection - GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/data-protection). I don't believe it applies to individuals but I'm happy to be proved wrong. For example, I have on my PC lots of PII, names, addresses, DOB, phone numbers, email addresses. Am I breaking the DPA? I don't think so. – DavidPostill Jul 25 '20 at 07:34
  • @DavidPostill - sorry, copy/pasted wrong bit - Computer Misuse Act 1990. I'm looking at the CPS summary rather than the individual acts – Tetsujin Jul 25 '20 at 07:38
  • @Tetsujin Ah, OK. – DavidPostill Jul 25 '20 at 09:00
  • We are childhood friends so there's nothing like spying or worrying about much. But I need this laptop for another few days until I get a new one. I am just worried if anyone else could get into the laptop or not because of this. – Ravi Kumar Rana Jul 26 '20 at 05:33

1 Answers1

0

You don't have a clue whether your friend installed a tracking cookie or a keylogger or any other malware. Since he is the person to have full control of his computer, it could become very time consuming to find out how to which degree the computer is compromised. In my opinion, there is only one satisfying solution: Give him back the laptop and do not borrow it from him again. He might see it as fun, but you don't know what is the reason for him doing what he does.

gammarayburst
  • 546
  • 5
  • 8