Old news--but I just heard of it ;-)

[roisin and mac]

I was reading that shallow little piece on cnn money about that woman who lusts after the macbook air (no right click on a mac *groan* not again ), and being as I had nothing better to do, I scrolled through the comments. and well one of them says something to the effect that 'you're crazy to try anything by sony anyway {one of the machines hse tried was a vaio], they're the ones that put rootkits in people's computers to invade their privacy back in '05'

So I had a 'huh?!' moment (I didn't even know what a rootkit was at that point, though it sounded ominous), and did a bit of googling, and the upshot of it all is I've spent a lot of time in the past couple of days reading up on that tidy little scandal. I'm impressed! I had no idea any of this had happened, so I was really curious to read up on it. I learned a lot of stuff to do with how computers work, as well as things to do with legislation on protecting privacy of computer users.

By now I've gone through lots of pages on various aspects of that sorry saga, so I thought I'd post here and open a sort of benefit-of-hindsight thread for people here to discuss that fine piece of corporate responsibility

 

[MisterMe]

... I scrolled through the comments. and well one of them says something to the effect that 'you're crazy to try anything by sony anyway {one of the machines hse tried was a vaio], they're the ones that put rootkits in people's computers to invade their privacy back in '05'

...

These people are combining issues. This was a few years ago. IIRC, the rootkits were put on CDs as an antipiracy measure. Play your CD on a Windows computer and it was installed there. Learn more about rootkits here.

What Sony did was inexcusable. However, most of the annoying spyware and such like that I have seen was preinstalled by a Windows computer manufacturer. What most people don't understand is that for most Windows computers, the product is not the computer. These computers are supported in much the same manner as magazines and newspapers--through advertising. You are not the customer; you are the product. The customer is the developer of that crap installed on your computer. Every third-party icon on your new computer's Desktop presents a substantial payment to Dell, Lenovo, HP, or whomever. Malware is the electronic equivalent of the reply return card that falls out of a magazine.