02-24-2005, 01:05 PM
|
#1 | | Din Älskling
Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Somewhere inside your head. Or am I?
Posts: 4,196
| Gator CPO appointed to Dept of Homeland Sec.
As part of DHS Privacy Advisory Committee: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_ro...tml?source=RSS
And here's the full list: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4367
Should have a pretty good understanding of how to advise in the invading of people's privacy. Can I get a holler back from my sys admins, yo?!
__________________
"Since when does being a patriot in America mean shutting your mouth?"
---
zz,zz,zz,zz,zz,zz! | 
|  | | And now for this message... |
| |
02-24-2005, 01:47 PM
|
#2 | | The Judge
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,103
| this kinda puts my panties in a twist. everyone should just convert to linux so if the government tries to put its homeland security spyware into your kazaa bundle, you won't have to worry. because you can't use kazaa. also, i hate gator and they have lots of pending lawsuits against them.
you need a premium account to view the salon.com article, btw.
i'm not implying anything, but what i'm saying is i'll send you some special information regarding salon.com accounts if you PM me.  | |
| | |
02-24-2005, 01:59 PM
|
#3 | | Din Älskling
Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Somewhere inside your head. Or am I?
Posts: 4,196
| Hmmm.... so it is. Got it off slashdot anyway 
------------------------------------------ by clicking on the above links, you agree that CrapWare Inc. can install any software it wants for any purpose it wants including but not limited to: the collection of personal browsing habits, the music/video/pictures on your computer, scanning email and other documents for possible contacts for our "premium" advertising messages, popups that will crash your browser every 5 minutes, wide open ports allowing access to your computer by other potentiall malicious individuals, disabling software that you actually want to run. Thank you for your support of free software.
__________________
"Since when does being a patriot in America mean shutting your mouth?"
---
zz,zz,zz,zz,zz,zz! | |
| | |
02-24-2005, 05:53 PM
|
#4 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 4,091
| ...anybody care to translate this thread into English for me? | |
| | |
02-24-2005, 06:14 PM
|
#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Posts: 2,993
| "Gator" is a web-based adware that masquerades as a desktop toolbar.
You innocently decide to install it--after all, who doesn't want quick and easy web searches?--and then find your PC innundated with spam and pop-ups courtesy of the Gator spyware that comes along with the toolbar.
Once you're fed up and disgusted with it and decide to uninstall, you find that it's nearly impossible to get rid of it. After days/weeks of searching for methods to remove it, you finally get it off your machine, but it's too late--your info has already been diseminated to the spammers.
The point of the thread is to inform us all that a chief executive of this incredibly intrusive adware has been named to head up Homeland Security. The implication is that the personal internet privacy of everyone in the US is now at extreme risk.
__________________
Nothing is more frightening than ignorance in action. | |
| | |
02-24-2005, 06:35 PM
|
#6 | | The Judge
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,103
| it comes in forms other than just a toolbar. it comes frequently bundled with other software, so to install your new super web game you found, you also automatically install gator without knowing it. then the popups turn up and all hell breaks loose. | |
| | |
02-24-2005, 07:39 PM
|
#7 | | Curmudgeon-in-Chief
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Somewhere in your nightmares!
Posts: 22,893
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by lochinvar a chief executive of this incredibly intrusive adware has been named to head up Homeland Security. | Not to head it. He has been named to a 20-member advisory committee serving the head honcho.
In any event, the furor is founded entirely on the fallacy of ad hominem ( circumstantial), i.e. the presumption that one cannot act well or be correct in the future simply because of a previous situation. It's not unlike the stubborn insistence that Cheney is a creature of the oil industry forevermore because he once worked for Halliburton, or, still more egregiously, that Kerry is a tool of the military-industrial complex because he was once a naval officer...
An optimist might see it as setting a thief to catch a thief.
Last edited by Inquartata; 02-24-2005 at 07:52 PM.
| |
| | |
02-25-2005, 10:16 AM
|
#8 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Posts: 2,993
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Inquartata Not to head it. He has been named to a 20-member advisory committee serving the head honcho. | I stand corrected. Quote: |
An optimist might see it as setting a thief to catch a thief.
| And of course you are known far and wide as an optimist...
A realist, on the other hand, might see it as setting the fox to guard the henhouse.
__________________
Nothing is more frightening than ignorance in action. | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 11:22 AM
|
#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 858
| Setting a thief to catch a thief, and setting a fox to guard the henhouse, are the same thing. Sounds like a "half-full / half-empty" distinction to me.
Anyway, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have a long tradition of taking on people with shady skills that ordinary agents don't have.
And any concern with government getting all into your private stuff should be balanced by the knowledge that such agencies have limited manpower and time, and are not inclined to waste precious resources snooping on you and me when there's not enough to devote to the mission in the first place. And if there are improper violations of our rights, the courts are there to put a stop to it.
Paranoia's fun, but there are much more interesting and probable things to be paranoid about.
__________________
"What did I tell you about being stupid? You don't get a birthday this year."
| |
| | |
02-25-2005, 11:46 AM
|
#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 5,481
| wow, government sponsored spyware. *feels himself slowly being pulled toward the left*
__________________
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moment, lost in time. Gone, like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die" -Phil Ken Sebben
| |
| | |
02-25-2005, 11:49 AM
|
#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 1,635
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Have At You {snip}
And any concern with government getting all into your private stuff should be balanced by the knowledge that such agencies have limited manpower and time, and are not inclined to waste precious resources snooping on you and me when there's not enough to devote to the mission in the first place. | Not if past history is a valid predictor of future conduct. Quote: |
And if there are improper violations of our rights, the courts are there to put a stop to it.
| But only if you find out about it.
--Philistine | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 12:22 PM
|
#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 858
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Philistine Not if past history is a valid predictor of future conduct.
| I guess I'm not up on my history. When have they gone prying into regular people's privacy for kicks, unrelated to an ongoing investigation? Quote: |
Originally Posted by Philistine But only if you find out about it.
| In eavesdropping, for example, I know that they're required to notify mostly everyone who was intercepted, soon after the end of the eavesdropping. They don't need to notify obviously innocent incidental speakers, like the pizza delivery guy, however. But I don't know what the notice rules are for computer-based investigations.
Regardless, even if they did snoop on your privacy for some reason, you'd find out about them snooping when they use the info they gather. So if you don't find out about it then they didn't use it, so what do you care?
__________________
"What did I tell you about being stupid? You don't get a birthday this year."
| |
| | |
02-25-2005, 01:19 PM
|
#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 1,635
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Have At You I guess I'm not up on my history. When have they gone prying into regular people's privacy for kicks, unrelated to an ongoing investigation? | A few examples--Martin Luther King, Jr., anti-communism investigations during the McCarthy era, Watergate. Quote: |
In eavesdropping, for example, I know that they're required to notify mostly everyone who was intercepted, soon after the end of the eavesdropping.
| Supposed to within 90 days after termination of the wiretap. If the information was material to the investigation. Generally, though, they are not released until shortly before indictment (at least federal wiretaps), as there is an exception for "good cause." There is no notification (prior to indictment, anyway) where intercepts are from where someone wears a wire or consents to have his conversations with others monitored. Quote:
{snip}
Regardless, even if they did snoop on your privacy for some reason, you'd find out about them snooping when they use the info they gather. So if you don't find out about it then they didn't use it, so what do you care?
| You'd find out about it if they indict you. At that point, you're likely to have more pressing issues than whether your privacy has been invaded...
--Philistine | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 01:23 PM
|
#14 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: MA
Posts: 7,367
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by esskreemr | Ha...ha...ha...wtf?
Did this Gator company have any function other than as spyware? | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 01:33 PM
|
#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Posts: 2,993
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by mrbiggs Ha...ha...ha...wtf?
Did this Gator company have any function other than as spyware? | In a word, No.
__________________
Nothing is more frightening than ignorance in action. | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 01:52 PM
|
#16 | | Din Älskling
Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Somewhere inside your head. Or am I?
Posts: 4,196
| I'm not necessarily against adware, spamware, spyware, whatever you want to call it. Each has a different function, many of which are legitimate. The problem I have is that these companies deliberately make the software difficult/impossible to uninstall unless you have a thorough knowledge in how to remove this scum from your computer.
If they are: 1) Up front about, 2) Cause no damage, 3) Have a clear opt out/uninstall option, then I have no complaints...
__________________
"Since when does being a patriot in America mean shutting your mouth?"
---
zz,zz,zz,zz,zz,zz! | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 01:57 PM
|
#17 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4,325
| Hah, Knoppix and firefox, suckers! | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 07:06 PM
|
#18 | | Curmudgeon-in-Chief
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Somewhere in your nightmares!
Posts: 22,893
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by lochinvar And of course you are known far and wide as an optimist... | You take that back!  | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 07:10 PM
|
#19 | | Curmudgeon-in-Chief
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Somewhere in your nightmares!
Posts: 22,893
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Philistine A few examples--Martin Luther King, Jr., anti-communism investigations during the McCarthy era, Watergate. | These were "regular people"?!
May I look forward to having a holiday dedicated to me, too? | |
| | |
02-25-2005, 08:25 PM
|
#20 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Passing you on the inside... vroom
Posts: 1,299
| |
