I see that Zeropaid.com wrote a lot of heat about the link I posted about Audiogalaxy Spyware. It seems to have infuriated as many as it
enlightened. I submit to those who self-righteously attacked Zeropaid, that although it may have been an older story, it was a highly appropriate
article that was ‘new’ to a number of people who may be too occupied to haunt forums all day. In-between the off-topic babble and generic debate about OS’s, some good comments were made; that there are inherent dangers that we do not
realize when we have spyware on our systems. Chris13570 made an excellent point about the corporate paranoia regarding intellectual property rights versus our personal rights of protection.
The fact of the matter is that spyware is a security breach. The information could be sent to anyone. Or intercepted on the way to a legitimate source and used for illicit purposes. Even without the danger it poses, isn’t it just a good idea to know who’s looking over your shoulder?
As Adey mentioned about the value of the individual to a marketing company, we should remember that all kinds of information gets stored about our activities. Not just how many times we visit Amazon in week, but where we bank, whether we pirate music, or where we post on forums. Legal cases that are helpless in finding identity in anonymous forums, could one day use spyware resources, for example. As for the marketing companies, illegitimate enterprises aside, a few former co-workers in marketing offices make me think twice about who I give personal info to over the phone.
Though news does need to be current, the article reiterated the need to be vigilant about anyone monitoring our online activities without our permission.
Today’s media culture is addicted to “what’s happening now.” Trouble in the Balkans yesterday, today is Afghanistan and who cares about Belfast, it’s old news. It opens the floodgates for Big Brother if we focus on the immediate and ignore the outdated by passively accepting invasive, personally identifiable tracking programs. Google.com has a page that contains some excellent links including articles about the Audiogalaxy spyware and the complaints link for the Federal Trade Commission “if you feel you were deceived when you installed a program that creates pop-ups [and] want to take action.”
Karstempire:DTM!
Related
- Audiogalaxy Spyware
- The Spyware and Adware Guide III
- The Spyware and Adware Guide I
- Spyware law proposed in US for third time
- Spyware…A cheap way for companies to get paid.
