Features
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License:
Free to try; $74.95 to buy
- Editor's Rating:
- Average User Rating:
-
Downloads:
542
- Operating Systems:
Windows Vista, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98
- Additional Requirements:
Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
- Limitations:
See description
- Date Added:
July 14, 2008
Publisher's description of SurfRecon Pro Tools
SurfRecon is a rapid-image-analysis tool that you can use to quick and discreetly scan almost any computer - Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer systems - for pornographic content. The application will fit on and can be run from a 1GB or larger thumb drive, making it highly mobile and easy to use. The value of SurfRecon is that it allows you to actively protect computer systems by scanning, identifying, and reviewing any pornographic content found on a suspect computer system. SurfRecon leverages the largest image-hash database, the IFID, with over 100 million image hashes in order to quickly identify and categorize any pornography discovered.
SurfRecon also includes a number of safety tools to limit an individual's exposure to dark and often-disturbing pornographic content, making it an excellent tool in corporate environments for those individuals who are tasked with reviewing suspect computer systems. You can only scan a set of pre-installed images. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.
Editor's review of SurfRecon Pro Tools
stars
- "Limited access with the trial version"
- Reviewed on: January 12, 2009
- Version reviewed: SurfRecon Pro Tools 1
If you're worried that potentially pornographic images are lurking in your system's drives, this program promised to scan and find them. Although we encountered several false hits, the bigger problem was how many features are disabled in the demo version.
This install for this app is a 175MB file. It is made to be portable for thumbdrive use, and carries all fonts and such files for that purpose. It also carries files to run the app on Linux and Mac. It would have been nice for the publisher to separate the operating system packages.
On each run the app quickly installs updates. Unfortunately, testers complained that the app would go into a loop of downloading updates and restarting the app. Users must install an updater patch from the publisher's support site to correct the problem.
Operating SurfRecon is a mere matter of starting the scan and waiting. The app displays all images found in a series of tabs including those reviewed as Safe, Sexual, Child Porn, Gaming, and Personal. All images in categories other than Safe are pixelated. Controls to display those images are locked in the demo.
The app notes that images listed as sexual include those submitted by law enforcement, discovered by the publisher's Web crawler, or have been linked to porn sites. The publisher notes that pornographic images are found by comparing a file's hash to a list of hashes of images deemed porn. Testers found many false alarms as the app listed generic images as sexual. The evaluation mode pixelates all found sexual images, forcing users to look for the original files to check the content.
The demo locks down all features save the scan making it difficult to accurately test this app. Nevertheless, those concerned that porn may exist on their drives can use this program's easy-to-follow scan function to find images.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 2 of 2 user reviewsSee all 2 user reviews
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: SurfRecon Pro Tools 1
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Version: SurfRecon Pro Tools 1
Pros: I didn't expect much but I was very pleasantly surprised. From what I have read, this is a home version of a tool used by Police to find porn on sex-offenders computers. it does a very impressive job scanning all the images on my computer, categorizing the images that are suspected pornography, and then letting me review all the content.
from what I have gathered, unlike other software, this doesn't look for flesh tone in images (because we all know that doesn't work) it just looks to see if any images from playboy.com, sex.com, hustler.com etc. are on your computer. These guys keep a database of all the images that get posted to over a million porn websites, that way if any of the images show up on your computer, you will know.
Cons: the software can be a little slow. I found that if you copy it form the thumb drive to the desktop it runs a lot faster.
Sometimes I get safe images in the sexual category. apparently that is because those safe images were on a porn site somewhere. At least I know what the kids are looking at.
last of all, I wish it were cheaper. I guess that is the price you pay for law enforcement grade software. All I can say is that my kids think twice about bypassing our filter because they know I can use SurfRecon to see what they have been looking at... Worth every penny.
- See all 2 user reviews Write review
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