Is there really a virus on Flickr?

Can my computer "catch" a virus from me looking at Flickr photos?

  • A friend of mine recently told me her computer succumbs to viruses every time she looks at my photos on Flickr.com. My reaction to that was "awwh, come ON!" Can that actually happen though? My photos are certainly just photos. I can't see how any viruses could attach themselves to them, especially since they are on the Flickr site, and not connected with my computer in any way anymore.

  • Answer:

    I truly doubt she got it from flickr.com website. The site is as clean as a whistle. She must have picked an infection from somewhere else. Anyway, tell your friend to install Web of Trust add-on to her browser. Ask her also if she has a decent antivirus and antispyware programs that are working on real-time. Either she has a crappy security system or they make lots of false positives. As an example, the SuperAntiSpyware program may be a good antispyware but it makes a lot of false positives too on tracking cookies. Not all tracking cookies are malicious.

Tahini Classic at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Other answers

Every time you visit a site, whatever you see on your screen has been downloaded onto your computer. Viruses can be attached to almost any file so just by viewing a picture, you are downloading it along with any virus attached. Only by having a good, up-to-date, antivirus program can you be sure of detecting them before they can do damage.

Allan

No, she has obviously downloaded a virus from a separate source. EDIT: Or as the person above says, it could just be the computer detecting Cookies negatively.

Datzy

Most probably your friend's computer were infected with virus/malware/spyware.

Parker Chai

Maybe it is some kind of tracking cookie.

teandbikkies

sure they can be loaded without your knowledge , your protection should have been able to detect that

Pall Mall

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