Barbarians at the digital gate

How spyware, a program that creeps onto a computer's hard drive unannounced, is wrecking the Internet.
The New York Times

The story "Barbarians at the digital gate" published September 19, 2004 at 12:55 PM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

OS X users do not suffer with spyware

Its sad to see that schools must spent so much time and money to maintain their Windows PCs. Is the supposed savings offered by switching from Apple computers now spent on the cost of maintaining Windows in the classroom? Schools and everyday consumers would do themselves a favor and switch to Mac OS X. Leave Windows to the Corporate professionals who have the training and time to control their computing environment.

[Jonathan]

Whatever...not not the platform...its the browser

And that would be because OS X users comprise a very small minority of site visitors. There is no reason for an adware designer to cater to OS X users. Being a minority may very well be a legit way to avoid viruses and adware but its not a healthy way.
And as the article stated simply stop using Internet Imploder drastically decreases your chance of getting adware. So it not so much the platform as it is the browser software you use.
Sorry but OS X is not not a viable option for the enterprise for so many reasons I could write a 5 page article on it.(And a half page article on why it is a good idea.)

adware too risky

to have anythings downloaded on your computer without your knowledge or consent will always disturb people. If that happens to my computer, my first thought is not to trust the advertisment or refusal to have anything with the product or service advertised. This defeats the purpose of the adware, I think, angers the consumers and nobody wins. I think people should loudly complain and keep at it. Our voices should be heeded.

[olePigeon]

What is this Spyware you speak of?

*goes back to using his PowerBook running OS X.*

[anthonycea]

Want to know more? Look at this page!

If you want to understand what spyware is and what can be done about it, look at the following URL

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://searchwars.squarespace.com/spyware-in-your-computer-toolb/" target="_newWindow">http://searchwars.squarespace.com/spyware-in-your-computer-toolb/</a>

You will find a link to Senator Conrad Burns new spyware law, software that you can download to remove spyware and many articles that will help you fight off the spies!

Regardless

Regardless of what computing platform or what browser you use, the idea that it is legitimate for a company to execute processes on your PC without clear permission is ridiculous.

The hardware belongs to you, the process list belongs to you. Adware and spyware should be treated with the same intolerance as breaking and entering.

[saleen351]

FireFox solves 99.9% of all the problems..

Switch to Mac or switch to firefox and only download from download.com which discloses if a program has spyware or adware. And for you kazza people, kazza-lite is free of this crap.

From the second I found firefox, my pc is adware and spyware free. Forget trying to play cat and mouse everyday with the crap, just solve the problem at the source, IE is your problem.

[Fray9]

Adware is never going to be acceptable

The average consumer these days knows enough about the web to find what they want without the "help" of adware. No one wants more advertising on their computer.. get that? NO ONE. Just because a person once agreed to let a legitimate program onto their computer does not give any and every company that can claim they are even remotely affiliated with the developer of the legitimate software or are in some tenuous way a relation some 16+ times removed permission to install anything and everything in their computer.

If you came over and I invited you in and told you to make yourself at home, then a year later your brothers girlfriends cousins mothers friends aquantence strolled up and walked in my house would they be trespassing? Of course. But somehow this little gem of common sense seems to be completely lost on greedy scum like adware companies who hide behind vaguely worded licensing agreements they know most people wont read and hope and pray no one else can understand.

If I snuck into your house while you were there and hid in a corner I can not say that because you didnt object to me being there (because you didnt know I was there) that I had a legal right to be there and do what I wanted.