[Healeys] Web addresses and Tinyurls

[m.brouillette at comcast.net]

I thought I would send to all a small conversation with someone who wants to remain nameless.  I thought it was worth sharing...

Mike B
59 BT7
------------------------------------------

Hi xx,

               Life is too short to get paranoid, but you need to be aware.  With today's technology, if you are not using one of the top security software, I could, without you knowing drop a piece of code ithru a web window with you never being the wiser that could:

.  track all your keystrokes, and send them back top me giving me access to bank accounts, passwords and everything else you've done today.
.  take over your computer and run an illegal business (happened at a company I worked at)
.  start broadcasting spam emails without you knowing till you get all the complaints and your ISP shuts your account off as a known spammer


I could go on and on about this stuff and what's possible, but let's just say that the security software like Norton, Mcafee etc does a good job of catching most of this nasty stuff, but it needs to be running and kept up to date.

BTW, Google's new browser is a great product.  Don't shy away from it because it's from Google...


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: someone who wants to remain nameless
> Hi Mike
> This is offline
> 
> I'm very aware of the issue.  But it happens every time you browse to a website 
> that uses a hit counter, every time you use a search engine, and as far as I 
> know every time you use google's new browser (which I refuse to do) or that 
> popular chinese browser. 
> 
> So my question is "Is it worth being paranoid about it?  How paranoid should I 
> be, and how paranoid should my computer-challenged mother be?"  It's not just a 
> rhetorical question. What really is the downside of using ONE MORE  tool that 
> tracks your browser use?  
> 
> (And let's grant that google certainly is capable of matching your IP address 
> pretty closely with your name, address & phone number. Maybe other companies 
> actually DO do that.  It gets spooky.)
> 
> I can cut & paste url's that wrap around several lines, but many people can't / 
> won't.  Including people who are on the Healey list.