At least someone is doing something about spyware.....
 

"Spitzer Sues Intermix Over 'Spyware'

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Thursday sued a major Internet marketer, claiming the company installed "spyware" and "adware" that secretly install nuisance pop-up advertisements which can slow and crash personal computers. " ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050428/ap_on_hi_te/spitzer_spyware

Anything this guy can do is a godsend. I still can't believe that a good portion of malicious/deceptive software is still not illegal. I say bury these basturds.

Re: At least someone is doing something about spyware.....
 

I think that they have a good portion of their (software) EULA is malicious/ deceptive/ vague . . . then everything is cool. Ya, know, 'cuz you (or someone) "Click to accept".

EULA - the new carte blanche.

You're crazy to wish for government regulation of the Internet. Let he market decide what is good and bad. Let us at least have a "free" Internet.

Re: Re: At least someone is doing something about spyware.....
 

there's the crux of the matter. eulas are getting more and more tedious to read. most people simply click "accept" to avoid the headache. I have to admit that more than once after clicking "accept" without reading the eula did I think "hmmmm, to what sorts of possible intrusions did I just agree???"

famous last words...

until you get hit

sure, I don't want any more regulation than what is absolutely necessary, but there has to be a limit to what someone is able to do surreptitiously on another person's computer. this is akin to me coming to your house and rifling through your file cabinet without your knowledge. wouldn't make you too happy, would it?

Having an "internet-only" box is a good sol'n.

Well, it's a good sol'n for now. Gates et al are slippery-sloping that one. (it starts as down loading an "update" . ... ends up running app's from. ..)

What's EULA? As for an Internet only box, great idea until you need to send files you've created on the other box. I agree about XP and its auto updates. There is a sort of queasy feeling I get knowing things beyond my control are happening to my computer from afar.

Yeah, good Q. I've never seen one.

I hear that they are some. . . thing . .. that has to do with installing software.

I wouldn't know though, as I never install software . . . I think the neighboor kids sneak in to my cmptr and install stuff. :cool:

My guess...End User License Agreement.

Yoiu know, the crap you don't read before you click on the "I agree to all the terms" button.

Ah, yes...

I always read the EULA's. You have to scroll down and look for the clauses, but it only takes a few minutes to scan through. As soon as I see anything that hints at them adding toolbars or automatic "updates" I decline.

I pulled out my old Mac last night, circa OS 9. It still runs, and at that, comparable to the Mobile Pentium Centrino I'm on now. I can't believe an eight year old machine with less than a third of the RAM, and an outdated OS can still beat this year-old machine from booting to processing to shutting down. Then again, maybe I shouldn't really be that surprised. :rolleyes:

fwiw, I have one (swappable) harddrive w/ nothing other than a few internet related app's. It boots much faster than my working HD.

I use the one (swappable) harddrive when WiFi'ing out & about.

Spitzer is working hard trying to get inline for NY governor

Yeah, I've seen his popup ad. :D

Heh heh, good one.


Apparently Elliot is a busy boy. Newest Yahoo headline: "N.Y.'s Spitzer Probes Mortgage Practices"

My EULA is at www.gnu.org

If I click on that, will porn explode across my screen?

you can hope. :cool:

sounds like you're speaking from experience :D

John, I agree in spirit, but the net has become a mass medium, and its somewhat tedious for the average h.s. student or busy parent or whatever to continually maintain a couple computers, what with having to get filters, configure firewalls etc. My stuff all runs zonealarm, spybot and adware, and every so often something still craps out the kids machine. I'm all for freedom, but not malicious use.

And the spam thing is out of hand. 70% of my email wants to sell me cheap prescription drugs.

The whole mass mrketing thing is out of hand.

I used to go and get the mail from the mailbox and bring it straight inside.

Now i stop at the garbage pail first, toss 10 items and bring the one or two real pieces of mail inside.

And some of it is such a waste, my bank sends me new credit cards offers at least twice a week, low APR and 0% on balance transfers, problem is you can't transfer from your current bank to your current bank. They already know that I'm a customer so why send me an offer that I'm not eligible to take full advantage of? WTF?

And now I'm getting spam text messages on my cell phone from my provider.

I hate them all.

Scott

Scott

Mozilla FireFox. Done. No more popups. Ditch outlook next for Mozilla Thunderbird.

fwiw. The mag 2600 is a great heads up on the net world. Barnes and Noble may have it tucked behind the counter if you ask for it. Otherwise the best is a subscription.