I know we've got
lots of other problems, but this just gets in my craw.
D. Reed Freeman, Jr., has been appointed to a four-year term on the Department of Homeland Security's new Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
Yeah, so what?
Keep reading.
Freeman is just one of the
many bottom feeders that make up the spyware company
formerly known as GATOR. Don't worry, the link won't take you to Gator, or to Claria, which they've re-named themselves after being
sued (and referred to as a "parasite") by several online publishers.
Why are my hackles raised? Well, there are basically two reasons.
Reason #1
To reward this Freeman (good pun, that) schmuck (a former FTC lawyer) with a cushy DHS job after he's cost me (and millions more unfortunates who've had to uninstall Gator's horrid software) hours and hours out of my life seems just wrong. Hours that weren't rewarding to anyone. Just endless reboots, lots of under-my-breath cursing, and big headaches. Millions of hours the world over of what could have been productive time, utterly and completely wasted. If anything, the SOB should be stuck somewhere in the bowels of a large office building, fielding newbie service calls; or better yet, he would be the perfect replacement for Microsoft's automated system that doles out Windows XP numbers. He should have to pull 18 hour shifts of that for the rest of his life. But no, he's just been given a tasty 4-year appointment to serve BushCO. He's perfectly suited for that gig, because...
Reason #2 (the BIG one)
One of the (many) things that Gator did for itself (besides wasting your time with popups, crashed systems, programs that no longer worked properly, etc.) was (and I'll paraphrase here):
"Phone home" to Gator with
Which web pages your computer views and how much time is spent at those sites.
Your response to the ads Gator would display.
Standard web log information and system settings.
What software is on your computer.
Your first name, country, and five digit ZIP code.
Download more software on to your computer, some of it originating from third parties
I was just gonna point up a few things here, but decided to bold the entire block, as it would be a trivial matter to extract every thing about you from your machine, given that Gator "helped" you by filling out your credit card info, address blanks and such when it was needed on commerce websites.
Freeman's been assigned to the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
Does the marriage of one of the most egregious violators of our online privacy being wed to the Department of Homeland Security bother anyone else?
R
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words