On his hostility to fascist software
So I needed a serial port monitor for some protocol work I was doing. Hadda be win32, figured I'd just go out, grab some shareware.
Didn't shop around much. Figure I'm not going to be using it long; anything will do. Downloaded the first package that looked reasonably competently done.
Then, in the course of installing it, I discovered that it came bundled with an additional install... for a 'family key logger'.
Yep. In other words, the kind of spyware worried parents might install to monitor their progeny's computer use.
I deleted it. All of it. The serial port monitor, the installer, the .zip it all came in. Then I hunted down the registry keys, and made them die.
I happen to be a parent. I happen to have a family. And I really object to this sort of thing. I really get annoyed that, more and more, that the kind of stuff you find a certain sort of mind attaching to the word 'family' is, well, kinda psycho.
Yep. The 'Family values' folk (ie. paranoid gay-hating sex-shop-vandalizin', desperate-pregnant-teenager-harassin' jerks). And now a 'family key logger' (ie. Mommy and Daddy's favourite spyware)... yeesh.
If and when I've got any reason to worry about my kids' internet use (they're a bit young yet, though the older one has been typing since she was two, so I guess it might not be much longer), I rather expect I'm going to talk to them about it... Can't imagine a lot of situations where installing a key logger is going to be worth the utterly brutal invasion of privacy it constitutes... I mean, sure, maybe if I've got a reason to imagine they've been brainwashed by an evil internet cult, and have become sleeper agents for world domination, and the only way I'm gonna catch them is by covertly monitoring their keystrokes...
No. Even then, I figure, I'll probably talk to them about it: 'So. This Doctor Evil... Does he make you feel good about yourself?... What's the attraction? Is it the futuristic costumes?...'
Freaks. I want no truck with fascist software... Granted, there's probably some hypocrisy in this, as a guy who's contributed to enough crypto stuff that somebody pretty scary, somewhere, is probably using it for nefarious purposes... But still, it's the principle of the thing. I don't actually know that. And I know anyone who makes a keystroke logger is making it for mostly pretty scary people.
Didn't shop around much. Figure I'm not going to be using it long; anything will do. Downloaded the first package that looked reasonably competently done.
Then, in the course of installing it, I discovered that it came bundled with an additional install... for a 'family key logger'.
Yep. In other words, the kind of spyware worried parents might install to monitor their progeny's computer use.
I deleted it. All of it. The serial port monitor, the installer, the .zip it all came in. Then I hunted down the registry keys, and made them die.
I happen to be a parent. I happen to have a family. And I really object to this sort of thing. I really get annoyed that, more and more, that the kind of stuff you find a certain sort of mind attaching to the word 'family' is, well, kinda psycho.
Yep. The 'Family values' folk (ie. paranoid gay-hating sex-shop-vandalizin', desperate-pregnant-teenager-harassin' jerks). And now a 'family key logger' (ie. Mommy and Daddy's favourite spyware)... yeesh.
If and when I've got any reason to worry about my kids' internet use (they're a bit young yet, though the older one has been typing since she was two, so I guess it might not be much longer), I rather expect I'm going to talk to them about it... Can't imagine a lot of situations where installing a key logger is going to be worth the utterly brutal invasion of privacy it constitutes... I mean, sure, maybe if I've got a reason to imagine they've been brainwashed by an evil internet cult, and have become sleeper agents for world domination, and the only way I'm gonna catch them is by covertly monitoring their keystrokes...
No. Even then, I figure, I'll probably talk to them about it: 'So. This Doctor Evil... Does he make you feel good about yourself?... What's the attraction? Is it the futuristic costumes?...'
Freaks. I want no truck with fascist software... Granted, there's probably some hypocrisy in this, as a guy who's contributed to enough crypto stuff that somebody pretty scary, somewhere, is probably using it for nefarious purposes... But still, it's the principle of the thing. I don't actually know that. And I know anyone who makes a keystroke logger is making it for mostly pretty scary people.
posted by AJM at 10:39 a.m. (Permanent Link)
