BAD PALTALK SECURITY
Written: May 02 '02 (Updated Jun 04 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ease of use ! Large community
Cons: Little or no Data Security , or customer support.
The Bottom Line: Nice community, great video feed , awesome features. but that is nothing compared to the utter lack of security.
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| mmchardy's Full Review: PalTalk |
“The #1 Multimedia Community on the NET!" This is what PalTalk sells them selves as. This maybe is true I have not checked nor do I care to. What I have to say has to do with basic Security issues and customer service. PalTalk has a problem with security, over the last 6 months the instances of "Identity theft" has risen to a rate that is rather shocking , sadly those figures are not available since most folks simply get another logon name and have billing transferred to that one. And PalTalk seems unable to or unwilling to stop it.
My own screen name was usurped on 3 occasions but luckily for me I changed them as soon as I saw them log on (this usually resulted in me being kicked off) immediately signed on again and changed my password. Reported it to PalTalk and nothing was done, in fact it happened 2 more times to me and once again to my wife today. Who knows what else these people have from PalTalk? My billing and address information is on there? CC numbers, as well as a rather lengthy list of people on my buddy list (potential targets). Recently someone took video captures of PalTalk users and posted them on the internet, some in various stages of undress, some not and made insulting, sometimes slanderous comments and insinuations about them.
DRAMATIC you say? Why yes it is but true I urge you to go on PalTalk (it’s free) talk to anyone, you will not only get 100 different stories but a hundred times a hundred different complaints. What is sad is that they know this and do nothing to correct it or work so slow that those with malicious intent move ahead of their efforts before they can make a correction. Hacker tools (TOOLZ) like paltalk Warez / ToolZ make it possible to cause mischief online, but flooding the chartroom(s) with garbage so fast that the server chokes and the room(s) are forced to close. These greatly diminish the enjoyment of PalTalk. Too bad it is usually a lot of laughs
June 4th 2002
Okay We all know the old saying there is nowhere to go but up. Well in the case of Paltalk that is only slightly true. here is what I have found after a more in depth look at paltalk.
1. Gain Network : you all know that little annoying program GATOR, the one that used to help fill out forms for you on webpages but ocassionaly sent out annoying ads as well. Well Paltalk has the little green annyoing guy built in , it does a silent install and just hides there sending your habits to companies that send you all sorts of annoying pop ups and SPAM e-mail.
2. FORCED update : okay each time a new piece of software comes out one knows it should be checked for compatibility NOT PALTALK, OH NO!!! One day you log on and a rather curt little message tells you that the software you have is old and U cannot log on until you have a more up to date version. No warning no choice you simply WILL update "Resistance is futile" I used one of the updated versions and I blue screened my little Pentium 4 1.5 ghz with 328mb of ram and 60 gb HArddrive running windows 2000 and all the security patches.
3. "DUH we are paltalk help , DUH" : okay this section is just a rant but come on now, the people that HELP in the HELP section are not much help at all. I mean when I went looking for a quick fix , I was told this "Well maybe you have too much stuff on your computer it might be taking to long to look for the data" HUH??? Who the heck is this person too much on my hard drive ? are they suggesting I get some Slim Fast for my FAT32 harddrive (Geek joke)and maybe it will be able to find stuff quicker . Oh but wait there is more , I put this one under the heading
Uninformed AUDACITY OUT OF CONTROL FILE : "Well I think maybe if you went out and spent the money on a better computer instead of building it yourself you would have better performance.... it must be the parts you have since I have never heard of the AUDIGY soundcard , or this RADEON video card and your memory sounds weird just get RAM , I don not know what manufacturer is DDR but you may want to call them and see if they will get you just plain RAM. buy a real sound card like mine I have a Sound Blaster Live mine works great and it came with my DELL." (YIKES NO COMMENT)
Well this session just gets worse but why beat a dead CPU.
4. The community : after a while these people you spend so much time with online just get a bit weird , and sometimes things happen, sometimes they don't. don't get me wrong I am weird myself but people come on now, go out breathe the carbon monoxide and asphalt , get away from the computer and come soak up some dangerous levels of UV like the rest of us. Interact with real people get out see the sun , then go back on PALTALK.
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Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
mmchardy
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Member: Marvin McHardy
Location: Greenbelt, MD , USA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
IT Professional, Father, Husband, and general Nuisance.
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