14 DAY TRIAL // Search tools are not a very uncommon thing. They are the easiest way to find the duplicates on your computer and get rid of them. But what if I needed to search for a special type of file, or for files that contained a certain word? And what if I needed to check out on the Internet activity of my kid and find out if s/he is visiting adult websites or reading/viewing adult content files?
Hyperdyne Software came up with a search tool that can detect the adult content on your computer. The search is done very fast and if you configure the software properly you can get pretty accurate results.
The name of the software is suggestive enough for those that have something to hide to worry. Snitch is at its first version and is already reliable enough. The price is $39.95 but the developer offers a trial period of 31 days before you decide to buy the software or not. The license is shareware, so you should expect some limitations while using it. One of them would be that you cannot perform a search on more than one drive.
The interface is not much, but at least it is intuitive and easy to handle. All the configuration of the application is done in the first screen of the software. The Configure tab is situated in the top right hand corner. The search options are also displayed here and the user can choose one of the four types of searches available in Custom Search. Images Only will set the software to look only for common image types only while Basic Search combines speed and the most common problem areas; it will look for images, movies, and Internet activity.
A Complete Search will make use of all the search algorithms the application is equipped with in order to explore and detect the maximum number of suspicious items on your computer. User Defined search is practically a shortcut to the Configuration menu of the program and allows the user to make the desired settings for the most accurate results.
The first tab in Configure Search window is Multimedia. It comprises the three multimedia components (images, audio and video) and each section can be customized. For images one interesting option is SkinScan Analysis which will apply a "fuzzy" effect on adult content pictures. Snitch can be set to scan the drive for images with obscene filenames. The formats supported by the program are JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP. So if you have a TIFF, TGA or other formats on your machine they will not be detected during the investigation.
A suspicion scale can be set between one (Low) and ten (Medium) in order to exclude the results that are under the setting. Size can also be included in the exploring and the user can set the exclusion limits (smaller than and larger than), as well as the height and width in pixels. Snitch is equipped with a search by date option and the lookup can be performed by the creation time interval, file accession or modification.
The Audio settings are less numerous and they only include two audio formats (.mp3 and .wav). Unlike the Images section, the user has the option of adding some more audio formats to be detected, although I think the demo version has this option restricted as in my case it did not work.
Video search settings allow you to include the video formats to include in the investigation (AVI, QT, MPEG and IVF) and again, add some more video types (functioned as well as in the Audio search settings). The scanning for video content can be configured by access date and the user can choose a time interval.
Internet tab offers you the chance to configure the Internet history search. This way, the results will include the most visited websites that have been accessed.
A very useful option can be found in Suspicious tab of the Configuration menu. Snitch is capable of detecting disguised files. This category includes files that are masked by and incorrect extension. The search can be done using special keywords, either those included in the application or some keywords defined by the user.
The compressed files are also included in the search and the supported formats are the most popular: .zip, .rar, .ace and .cab. The software will look inside the archives and display in the results only the archives containing the adult content.
User Defined allows the user to perform a search by filename or by file type and check into the items included into a specified time interval. The lookup can be performed considering the size of the files and defining a range in kilobytes.
Miscellaneous deals with result capping and clarification of the results in all the selected categories. The final activity report of the software can be customized in here. The last section in this tab is dedicated to setting a password for the application launch. This way all unauthorized access will be stopped and only you can use the program.
The results window has separate sections for each file type and the first one is Images. Every picture that fits the search criteria will be displayed in thumbnails and upon clicking on it an enlarged view will be enabled. If there are more images than the window can display then they will be shown on more pages, the navigation options being available in the top right hand part of the window. The adult content will have a "fuzzy" effect applied.
Under each picture there will be displayed the name of the file and the extension. Sorting options include alphabetical, by skinscan, by date, by size, by directory or by name obscenity ordering. Unfortunately, there is no way to find the path of the files in this window if you do not enlarge the image (you will have all the data displayed at the bottom of the window).
The video results window has the same options as Images. And the internal player will play the files so that you see the content and judge for yourself. Obscenity results give you the list of the files that have been determined to possibly contain obscenity or suspicious topic in the file name or content. Right clicking and choosing Open will display the content and the suspicious words will be highlighted. The user can skip from one suspicious word to another by using the "Next suspicious word" option. The application will display for each file where the suspicion was found (either in the content or in the filename).
Generate Report function will contain all the files that you have selected during your checking out of the results. It can be printed and modified in any way the user desires, as it is a WordPad sheet. I must warn you that the results will include every file that is subject to the slightest suspicion of containing inappropriate content.
The Good
The application is easy to handle and the results are pretty accurate. The disguised files detection really works, as long as they have an extension supported by the software. I was impressed that even the files with hidden attributes were detected.
The Bad
The results in the Audio Results window included all the audio formats detected in the specified path. It detected a doorbell.mp3 file that contained nothing inappropriate. It is true that the Snitch did not label it as having an obscene name or content, but it appeared in the results. Also, some desktop wallpapers were shown with the "fuzzy" effect applied, although neither the name nor the content was obscene.
Video results resulted in displaying the clock.avi and the Windows intro movie files that come with Windows OS.
The Truth
Despite of all the baddies enumerated above, the software does a great job and the scanning is comprehensive enough. Taking into consideration that this is version 1.20 the application is very good and if the developer keeps up the good work the results will be more accurate.
Anyway, try the program for yourselves and see if you are impressed. Personally, I was impressed by the disguised files detection.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
