🚀 go-pugleaf

DoonMan wrote:

> like name and e-mail address.

Who cares?  My name and e-mail has been sent all over the place.  We are
listed in the phone book and subscribe to magazines, so our phone numbers
and addresses are out there as well.  Blizzards needs to verify that you
have a legitimate copy before giving you Technical Support.  Afterwards,
they need your name and e-mail address.  This also prevents more than one
person from using your CD-Key to play on BNet.  If their products started
searching and transmitting confidential or personal information, then it
would be a different story.

What worries me are all those little programs that we download for free.
Larger companies always have competitors or curious individuals looking over
their products.  It's difficult for them to do anything underhanded without
someone catching them.  That is not the case for that little free/shareware
program you just stuck in your system.

I have comments on two related topics I read about a few weeks ago.  There
are companies that let you back-up your data over the Internet for a fee or
for free.  Now that's an idiotic idea.  Anything I deem important enough to
require back-up is usually confidential, personal or both.  The same is true
for allowing web sites to scan your system for viruses.  Imagine seeing
this, "We have detected the CIH virus in 10 Gigs of dirty pics on your E:\
drive".

--
Later,
Marcus