On 29 Aug 2003 20:39:59 +0800, in <alt.privacy.spyware>, Aaron
<aarontaycheehsien@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> Spywareblaster can be useful.
[snip]

No, not if the system in question is set up properly to start with, it
can't.

> Install it on your son's or daughter's (or
> anyone who is inherently reckless with regard to computer security
> despite endless amts of warning and lecuring) computer,
[snip]

Beyond the fact that my (step-)son is 25, married, and is only just now
*beginning* to listen to me, sometimes[1], your premise is flawed. Giving
your child (the use of) a system which is so horridly misconfigured that
"Spywareblaster" *could* potentially do any good is, in and of itself, a
*MUCH* larger problem, which "Spywareblaster" (like all other similar
after-the-fact "band-aids") is inherently inapable of addressing.

> ...and it works
> transparently. Anything else like proxomitron, or more secure IE settings
> are very visible and can be easily changed or closed by even the least
> experienced user, who
>
[snip]

At which point, what you are describing is a parenting problem, not a
technical problem -- and that's a whole 'nother discussion. If you cannot
trust your kid to leave the system configuration as you want it to be, then
you have MUCH larger problems to wrestle with than which after-the-fact
band-aid utility programs to use for which purpose. Hence, the mention of
Proxo, etc., was intended only to acknowledge that you would presumably be
using some or all of these other utilities anyway (for other reasons); so
any of "Spywareblaster"'s incidental functions (i.e., those beyond dealing
with ActiveX controls) would therefore already be dealt with.

> And yes, i know people should not be using Internet explorer in your
> book, but i'm not God
>
[snip]

The $DEITY of your choice is completely beside the point. The FACTS are
clear -- ActiveX has *NO* place on any properly configured computer system,
especially one connected in any way to the Internet. That combination is an
open invitation to Bad Things[tm]. It inescapably follows from this that
having any program installed which can or will download and/or install ANY
ActiveX controls disqualifies a system from being described as "properly
configured". The fact that many shiny new computer systems come out of
their boxes similarly misconfigured does *NOT* change that.



Footnotes:
[1] - It takes a father to appreciate Mark Twain's famous quote: "When I
was seventeen I thought my father was the stupidest man I had ever met.
When I was twenty-one it was amazing how much the old man had learned in
those four years"


--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet01[at]appropriate-tech.net


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

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