Are Downloads Safe?

[Guest 1]

There are instances of some software companies including scanning code in their downloads. There could be a wide variety of purposes for the "extra" code. One case seems to show that it is intended to stop piracy. However, that must be taken on pure faith. If you lovingly trust the company then no problem. However, examine the basis for that trust. Some people once trusted their spouses to the extreme and ended up in divorce court. There are such things as character flaws.Downloading to a computer where you have an open file of your account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers, etc. is dangerous. However, the general public possibly has thousands of occurrences of this condition. Once the code has been planted you never know that it is periodically scanning, using a sophisticated process, to look for usable info. Once it has collected some it sends it, in the middle of the night, to a data collection computer where more complex data mining is done. The data package then appears on certain forums for sale to the highest bidder. Next you get a credit card bill for payment for a new Jaguar!! And then a bill from a company you never heard of. The dozens of bills arrive for purchases "you" made. Now you face years of trying to clean up your Identity Theft all because you trusted a download.Keep serious information in only encrypted files. However, if the code is logging your key strokes to examine patterns you have a problem!

[Guest]

hmm, you never learn do you?Get banned with one account, start another 5 minutes later to continue your flamewar under another name.

[Guest Ken_Salter]

While this thread is, so far, not breaking any ToC, we will be keeping an eye or two on it. I have moved it to the Hangar forum.However, the poster did NOT put their real name in their user profile, so their account has been deactivated. If they wish to continue posting, then they can email their real name to us.