Nasty piece of software, some more links :
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/iesnare-how-bookmakers-are-spying-on-you-from-your-own-computer/https://justiceforpunters.org/what-is-iesnare-and-how-to-find-it/When you open an account with a bookmaker who uses ‘iesnare’, usually without you knowing ‘iesnare’ will be downloaded on to your PC, laptop, phone or other e-device. Some companies download it before you deposit funds and therefore have a bet, so the only way you can find out about its use before it is downloaded is to read a company’s terms and conditions (T&Cs) before registering. Incredibly, even this will probably not help as we have yet to read one set of T&Cs that specifically mention the product. From that moment, whether you delete it or not, your e-device will be listed in a world database held by a company called ‘Iovation’ (to our knowledge there is no right for the consumer to have your e-device removed form this database, so it is there for life, even if the e-device, is lent, sold or gifted). The database stores the following details about your e-device and internet access points:
Screen resolution, Device Type e.g. PC, MAC, etc., Operating System e.g. Windows, OS X, Linux, etc., Device Time Zone, JavaScript on/off, Flash on/off, Flash installed?, Flash Version, Flash storage enabled/disabled, Browser Cookies enabled/disabled, Browser Type, Browser Version, Browser character set, Browser Menu Language, Browser Configured Language, IP Address, IP Geolocation: City, IP Geolocation Country Code, IPGeolocation Proxy Flag, IP Geolocation Country Name, IP Geolocation State/Region, IP Geolocation Time Zone, Internet Service Provider (ISP), ISP Organization; Fully-qualified domain name, CPU Count, CPU Speed, Operating System Version, System Model, Component Serial Numbers, MAC Address, DeviceName (MD5 Hash), Device Identifier, Device Locale, Device System Version, OS Build Number, Kernel Version, Kernel Build Number, Flash System Capabilities.
Seems that a simple all encompassing clause in t+c's or even cookie policy gives gaming sites the ok to install what is effectively spyware on your system.
For example here is an excerpt from skypokers' cookie policy:
Do these cookies collect my personal data? Does the information get passed onto third parties? Yes, some of these cookies collect some personal data. We pass on both anonymised and personal information collected onto third parties such as Omniture and Google
Links to more information Page 8 – 9 of this guide, provided by the ICO, details the types of cookies in more detail:
https://www.cookielaw.org/media/1096/icc_uk_cookiesguide_revnov.pdfType of Cookie: iesnare
What do they do? We use the iesnare cookie to prevent fraud and protect customers.
How do we use this type of cookie? We use the iesnare cookie:
to prevent money laundering;
to verify customer identity and financial details; and
to prevent fraudulent transactions.
Do these cookies collect my personal data? Does the information get passed onto third parties? The iesnare cookie collects your IP address along with certain device information. We pass information captured by the iesnare cookie (for example your device's IP address), onto Iovation (a third party organisation) as part of our efforts to ensure that customers are genuine, have not registered more than once or are not fraudulently trying to access accounts that do not belong to them.
So when you click what you think is a generic "this site uses cookies, click here to read our cookie policy" message you agree to have spyware installed on your machine.
It is buried in flash so likely evades anti virus.
Worse still the company owners are heavily linked to the UB superuser scandal where company owners used backend code to see the hole-cards of other players and defraud them of tens of millions of dollars.
There are instructions on how to remove and - more importantly - disable the software in the links i posted
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