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Who's Looking out for or Spying on you now.

As some of you may have already known this thing called Spyware is becoming an increasing problem with those of us who like to use the Internet. Hello! Which is all of us. Some of us depend on it as much as people who need a portable oxygen bottle to get around. I've heard people gasping on the telephone when their Internet connection is down much the same way as when I stand on the oxygen line of someone I play cards with. Either way, they are both in dire straits. We do depend on the Internet now more than we like to admit which makes things that interfere with that connection intolerable. And the top of the list folks is Spyware! Spyware in itself is not a thing, but a generic term for a class of software that exploits Microsoft operating systems connected to the internet. There are a whole host of programs out there that if given half a chance will nest in all sorts of places on your hard drive and in your registry creating all sorts of mayhem and havoc. Spyware has now passed the point of becoming more of a nuisance than viruses. (Editors note: This is his own opinion and if you ever had you system crashed by a virus you might disagree.)

Now you are thinking this sounds a lot like virus activity. Well, yes it does. Spyware can and will degrade your system performance down to a trickle if it goes unchecked. Sort of like urban sprawl and freeway congestion. But if they are so similar what really is the difference? I'm glad you asked. It's you numbskull! You asked for it! You even went out and looked for it! You look incredulous. You say "Not Me." I never installed anything. Righhhht. Look, I hate to break the news to you but yes you did. Remember when you download the Spyware check that offered to do a purity scan of your system for free? Spyware. Remember downloading that internet browser helper that promised to make internet searching easier? Spyware.

Remember downloading that Sponge Bob Desktop Theme for you computer in the baby's room. Spyware. Wait a minute! That was me who download the Sponge Bob Theme. Is nothing safe anymore? Well, no. The one thing that saved me was the fact that as I was about to happily install my FREE Sponge Bob Desktop Theme which download as an .exe file. I noticed that when the installer asked if I wanted to install Bikini Bottom Theme I noticed that it said "brought to you by Ezula and Topwebrebates" Wait a minute I thought, I recognize these infamous names as two of the top sources of Spyware infection that I remove daily off of your computers. If you don't believe me go to Ezula.com and just read their company vision. Scary. Well, I took the time to read the user agreement to install my theme and it was impressive. It asked for just about everything except my first born child. I would have pretty much given them complete permission to do whatever they thought were in my best interests to bring an unlimited source of advertising and also allow (for a price) other select advertisers to install their products and services on my PC. Whew, I have seen less legalese on a mortgage agreement.

I was one of the lucky few who stopped in my tracks after reading this horrifying legal document. I cancelled the installation and then proceeded to look for another Bikini Bottom theme that was a .ZIP file which took a little more work to install but was not "Brought to me by EZULA and TOPWEBREBATES" So as I said earlier, all of you who have had the pleasure of removing this crap off your PC you at one time or another installed the first one yourself. You gave them complete permission an agreed to their terms and conditions as stated. After you opened the door it was just a matter of time before they invited their friends over to party on your PC. The analogy I tell my customers is it's a lot like leaving your home for the weekend with your teenager in charge. They invite their friends over, who invite their friends over and pretty soon you have a house full of people you don't know doing all sort of terrible things to your stuff and disrespecting all you've worked so hard to accomplish and build up. In much the same way these people disrespect us by messing up our PC's that we work so hard to get "just the way we like it." And you know it does take a lot of work. They basically disrespect us by taking advantage of our inherent trusting nature of the goodness of humanity. Unfortunately, people are not always so good and the Internet can be a prime example. As my personal icon Bill Oriely says "Who's looking out for you". I can definitely tell you it's not Ezula and their friends. The moral of the story is nobody does something for nothing and free is not always free. See Ya next month.

PS Keep those cards and letters coming. So far no one has sent any flaming hate mail to rants@vcccomputers.com, yet.

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