From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue May 21 2002 - 09:24:48 MDT
On Tuesday, May 21, 2002, at 02:15 am, Reason wrote:
>
> Whatever happened to caveat emptor?
It was discarded by the Magna Carta when fraud was made illegal.
Vendors are no longer allowed to lie about what they are selling.
> The evil "they" aren't forcing anyone to
> install anything that they can't check out, read reviews of, or
> generally
> act responsibly about.
Wrong. This stuff gets bundled and installed without notice of its
function to the user. See
<http://news.com.com/2100-1023-801599.html?legacy=cnet> as an example.
The software distributors themselves claimed to not know what the
software installers on their disks were installing!
> Would you randomly go out and put third party wheels
> on your car without doing at least a little checking?
Go do checking of Kazaa at <http://www.kazaa.com/en/privacy/spyware.htm>
and tell me if it sounds like they are going to install spyware and
record your personal information. It reads like a promise that they
won't do that. Can you catch the legal loophole that allows them to do
it anyway? Many people can't.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> Principal Security Consultant <www.Newstaff.com>
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