I found four of these plugins on my hard drive. Two of them had been
on the drive for about a month or so. What is the file and who puts it
out as a plugin? Does it really trace my activities on the Net?

"Plugin141_02" makes me think it might be related to the Java plugin
(from Sun Microsystems), of which 1.41_02 is a recent version. .trace
often means that the file contains debugging information, possibly
generated when the plugin crashed. I doubt it's anything to be
concerned about, but if you're worried, you can try running Ad-Aware
(http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/), which detects spyware
and tracking software on your computer.

Although one can't be positive from the file name alone, most likely
these are Java debugging output files as damiam-ga said.

Sun Microsystems's documentation on tracing and logging in Java 1.4.1
says "By default the trace and log file names are, respectively:

.plugin<version>.trace and .plugin<version>.log"

Source:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/docs/guide/plugin/developer_guide/tracing_logging.html

Note that these names start with a period, while the one you reported
does not.  If the file names on your disk do actually start with
periods, that would be further confirmation that those files are Java
trace files.

A trace file just contains text that was sent to the Java Console. 
You may be able to open these files with a text editor and confirm
that they look like Java console output.

If that is what these files are, they are not plugins themselves and
do not send out any information about your activities.  They are
outputs of some Java applet that ran on your computer, containing
console output from when that applet ran.  In this case, you can
safely delete them.


Search strategy:

Google didn't have anything for the specific file name, so I searched
for just

plugin trace

The page cited above was the fifth one listed in the search results.


If you think this comment adds sufficient value to damiam-ga's
comment, I will be happy to post it as an answer.

--efn

Thanks to both of the respondents for thier timely answers. I need no
further assistance reguarding the question. Both answers plus what I
found on my own tell me they are indeed jave debugging plugins. They
are safe. Thanks to both of you.

Have a nice week.

Sincerely, warbonnet

The above re-assuring comments are incorrect.  I too found these files
appearing on my hard drive and they are indeed generated by Sun Java,
however they are not merely for internal consumption.  I peeked inside
with a hex editor and found the following:

Using JRE version 1.4.1_02 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
User home directory = H:\Documents and Settings\(My username was
here!!!!!)
Proxy Configuration: No proxy


----------------------------------------------------
c:   clear console window
f:   finalize objects on finalization queue
g:   garbage collect
h:   display this help message
l:   dump classloader list
m:   print memory usage
o:   trigger logging
p:   reload proxy configuration
q:   hide console
r:   reload policy configuration
s:   dump system properties
t:   dump thread list
v:   dump thread stack
x:   clear classloader cache
0-5: set trace level to <n>
----------------------------------------------------
----------- RedSheriff  Measurement -----------
Privacy:  http://www.redsheriff.com/privacy.htm
Record Sent

As you can see, a record was sent from my computer, without my being
made aware of it, to Red Sheriff - a data mining company based in New
Zealand, in cahoots with several big names.  I suggest you have a look
at their web site.

This plug-in trace is therefore a cookie of sorts, but mediated
through Java, so I don't know if it will be blocked or even picked up
by ordinary cookie detectors.

We're dealing with guesswork and circumstantial evidence here.

First, we can't draw any definite conclusion from the file name alone.
 Any program could write a file with that name.

Second, we can't draw any definite conclusion about the contents of a
file on warbonnet's computer based on the contents of a file with the
same name on netweaver0's computer.

Third, for the file to be used as a cookie, a program would have to be
able to read it.  A Java applet cannot read a local file unless the
applet is signed with a trusted identity.  See:

http://java.sun.com/sfaq/#allowRead

Of course, some other kind of program, such as an ActiveX control or a
non-applet Java program, could read the file.

Fourth, this file could be used as a cookie if security settings were
loose enough, but that is true of any file.  We don't have any
evidence that any program either did or did not read the file.

In summary, all we can say for sure is that it's named like a Java
debug output file.  We can't conclude from the information available
either that it is safe or that it is sinister.

--efn