Spyware? Adware? Does it really matter?
No – It’s what you don’t want on your pc that matters.
The spyware/adware controversy currently taking up most of the world’s IT columns is looking more and more like a Marx Brothers movie or a Christmas pantomime with the anti-spyware crowd shouting ‘Oh yes it is!, while the adware/spyware producers attempt to drown them out with their own chant of ‘Oh no it isn’t!’ Meanwhile the lawyers fire off injunctions as the legislators attempt to define the rules of engagement and, every now and again, someone crosses no-man’s land to join the ‘enemy.’
Confused? You will be. It’s why they invented small print and end-user license agreements. Any legal definition of spyware will be good for about a week. By then the producers will have made enough changes to allow their lawyers to argue that they’re now making something else. It’s already happening. Only the very worst programs will get caught in that net.
But wait a minute; let’s just step back a bit and ask ourselves a simple question’ Does it really matter what you call it? Seriously? I mean I know there’s a whole industry growing up around the argument and I’m sure all the people involved have families to feed and mortgages to pay. But the truth is, your PC – anybody’s PC – has a whole bunch of stuff running on it that you don’t know about and it’s not just the adware or spyware that can cause you problems. Take right now. I’m writing this on a PC running Windows 2000; I’m using Word to write the article and Novell Groupwise in case anyone wants to email me. So I’m using two applications and an operating
system. So how many actual programs do I have running? Answer: Thirty. That’s right, 30, as in three-zero. And that’s with a
carefully cleaned system !
I’ve got antivirus update and support background tasks, PDF print managers, device managers, service managers and, quite possibly, manager managers. They’re all using up memory and resources and, if not properly configured, could get in each other’s way and cause problems. Some even report back to the company that made them. What any PC user really needs to know is:
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1. What programs are running on my machine ?
2. What do those programs do ?
3. Which programs I do NOT want on my PC any day any time ?
4. Which programs I do not need running for my type of PC utilization ?
And they need all those answers in plain, easy to understand,
language. ‘Smoothing my web-access while enhancing my internet
browsing experience’ doesn’t tell me anything. Telling me that a program will send information about my browsing habits to a company that will then send me related adverts in return, does. It doesn’t need to be labeled spyware, adware, malware, scumware, or any other ware as long as I know what it does and have an easy way to stop it doing it.
Ideally all this would either be on the packaging or the download page so that we could make a choice before we parted with our money or hit the download button. Sadly that isn’t the world we live in and, as ever, it will be the programs we most need to know about that will give us the least amount of information in the most confusing form. With the legal arguments already flying thick and fast, the likelihood is that anyone producing an anti-anything program will find themselves spending most of their time in court defending a dwindling database. Another problem with most ‘anti’ programs is that they only tell you when they’ve found something that fits the definition they are using – which can sometimes pick up legitimate programs as well. They never give you a list of all the stuff they ignored and yet your problem could be with one of those tasks.
There will probably never be a way in which you can be totally safe and still be connected to the internet. But you have a much better chance of avoiding malicious programs and keeping your PC running at it’s best if you know everything that’s running on it. Dentists have always recommended brushing after every meal. How about ‘brushing’ after every internet session especially if your children have been on it.
Making certain types of program illegal will certainly help as long as the laws are enforced but deciding what’s best for your own PC and your own needs is always going to be the smart choice in the long run.
What we really want is for software vendors to supply the information we need in a language we can understand.
Maurice McElroy
AnswersThatWork.com
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