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The spy program stays on your computer even if you don't keep the program you were trying out.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Spyware makes a mockery of free-trial software


July 12, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   I've often written about the best sites for freeware and shareware programs on the Internet. You can have a grand time "window shopping" just by cruising through some of these sites.
   And of course free software sure does save you money.
   But I'm haunted by a question a friend of mine asked many years ago, back when practically nobody except college professors and Army researchers knew about the Internet. He and I had discovered how to log onto Internet ftp sites -- server computers that allowed strangers to connect up to retrieve files -- and he was getting very worried.
   "We're going to get caught," my friend John said.
   "Caught doing what?" I asked him. I hadn't yet got the point.
   "Caught breaking into these computers!"
   I tried to explain what an ftp site was all about. It's a computer that waits for you to connect. You don't have to be somebody important. You don't have to have a friend at Chase Manhattan. You don't even need a name. You can just log on as "Anonymous."
   He got that part. It took a long time.
   Then he had the clincher.
   "But we're stealing the software."
   My old friend has long since become an accomplished Internet downloader and doesn't worry any longer about "stealing the software" from ftp sites or Web sites.
   But the questions I often get when I speak to civic groups and clubs ring the same bell. How can anybody write software for free? Why would anybody give it away? What's the catch?
   The answer is not as simple as it used to be, and that's why I thought of my friend John and his pointed question. Back when John and I searched the file servers on the little-known Internet, software posted on ftp sites and what few Web sites there were at that time was free because that was the way it was done. It was free because nobody could imagine charging for it.
   It was free because everybody needed to help everybody else.
   That sounds so icky today. It sounds like some sort of pretty-speak at a commune meeting. Do good to all and all will do good to you. Give away everything you create and everything everybody else creates will be given to you.
   Times have changed, and the successor to this touchy-feely mantra of freely shared software is the Open Source movement. The most famous Open Source software success is Linux, the operating system created by one programmer, Linux Torvalds, but nurtured and improved by thousands of others. Another great example is the Apache Web server, the most widely used Internet server in the world.
   Open Source software follows very precise rules. First, anyone who creates Open Source software must make the software AND the software source code (the original form of the program) available to anyone who wants to download it. This makes it easy for anyone else to look at the code and fix bugs or make changes. Second, anyone who changes an Open Source program must make those changes available in the source code to anyone else who wants to download it.
   But there's a new category that worries me. It's freeware with a twist of nastiness. I call it spyware.
   Spyware is software that tracks what you are doing without your knowledge or consent. You download a program to try it out and with it comes a hidden spy program that monitors what you do on the Internet and reports your activities to a central location. The spy program stays on your computer even if you don't keep the program you were trying out.
   Spyware is despicable. Companies I once respected have been caught doing it, and I'm sure others are catching on to this new way of invading your privacy.
   This is strictly a Windows problem so far. Mac and Linux users can relax, but if you use Windows please install the free spyware eradicator called OptOut from Steve Gibson. Go to www.grc.com/optout.htm and download the software. Run it every day if you do a lot of downloading. Your privacy is too important to ignore.