Cnet, Softonic et al -- Internet Downloaders Beware !!! Beware of any downloading site using downloaders or installers. Internet

 We all download I am sure, but need to watch for the insidious "downloaders" and "installers" that spy on you and abrogate your privacy.

What to look for: When downloading and the first dialogue pops up, you'll see something lik, ArcadeFun.exe downloader 666 kb. The tipoff is you're getting a program to download another program and the size is very small, in the case less than a megabyte. You can always tell because the downloaders [or] installers are always almost exzactly the same size and not possibly ig enough to be an application.

CNet and Softonic are two of the major offender, with hype all over the place extollig the virtues of this or that program you can download.  But when it comes down to it you see the first download is a downloader.exe for whatever program.

This is a classic way spyware and malware get on your computer. When you see downloaders instead of an application, Red X and close the tab before the download starts. If it starts abort it.

Free download managers are another culprit, but I know DownThemAll!, a Firefox addon is OK.  Download managers are classic Trojan Horses, usually snithching you out - everywhere you go, everything you do etc. There may be some legit download managers, but I have only seen one...see the attached screenshot for a typical downloader trying to weasel its way onto your computer.