I thought I would send to all a small conversation with someone who wants to
remain nameless. I thought it was worth sharing...
Mike B
59 BT7
------------------------------------------
Hi xx,
Life is too short to get paranoid, but you need to be aware.
With today's technology, if you are not using one of the top security software,
I could, without you knowing drop a piece of code ithru a web window with you
never being the wiser that could:
. track all your keystrokes, and send them back top me giving me access to
bank accounts, passwords and everything else you've done today.
. take over your computer and run an illegal business (happened at a company I
worked at)
. start broadcasting spam emails without you knowing till you get all the
complaints and your ISP shuts your account off as a known spammer
I could go on and on about this stuff and what's possible, but let's just say
that the security software like Norton, Mcafee etc does a good job of catching
most of this nasty stuff, but it needs to be running and kept up to date.
BTW, Google's new browser is a great product. Don't shy away from it because
it's from Google...
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: someone who wants to remain nameless
> Hi Mike
> This is offline
>
> I'm very aware of the issue. But it happens every time you browse to a
>website
> that uses a hit counter, every time you use a search engine, and as far as I
> know every time you use google's new browser (which I refuse to do) or that
> popular chinese browser.
>
> So my question is "Is it worth being paranoid about it? How paranoid should
>I
> be, and how paranoid should my computer-challenged mother be?" It's not just
>a
> rhetorical question. What really is the downside of using ONE MORE tool that
> tracks your browser use?
>
> (And let's grant that google certainly is capable of matching your IP address
> pretty closely with your name, address & phone number. Maybe other companies
> actually DO do that. It gets spooky.)
>
> I can cut & paste url's that wrap around several lines, but many people can't
>/
> won't. Including people who are on the Healey list.
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