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By: Ian Essling
Let's be honest; when you click "Agree," and check the box that says, "I have read the above license and agreement and agree to abide by its terms," how many of those times have you really read whole thing? Once? Twice? Seen one, seen them all?
It's ok to admit it; we are all guilty of it at times. License agreements used to be standard affairs and you could get away with it; the old pattern included a part about it not being the company's fault if you were stupid and misused the program, a part about not reverse engineering and stealing the program, and then a part about not transferring the program to a country the U.S.A. currently had a trade embargo on.
But now, every company (scrupulous and not) is sculpting their agreements in different ways to reach their goals, and the end user (you and me) has to be more cautious then ever.
Companies creating programs such as the virus-filled file-downloading utility called Kazaa bank on the fact that most people don't really want to read 15 pages of legal mumbo jumbo about reverse engineering and copyright infringement information that does not even apply to the vast majority of users. So, deep down in their agreement, they hide the nefarious little lines of text that can cause so many problems.
Unfortunately for those who'd rather just slap the next button as fast as they can, software developers have grown smarter, and now they are making sure that they cover themselves from potential lawsuits by having the user essentially say, "Yes, please install much spyware on my computer." Because, when you click "Agree," that is exactly what you are doing; you are agreeing with everything written in that license, whether you have read it or not.
I have worked cleaning viruses and spyware infections from computers for the last six or seven years, and I can say easily that the vast majority of infections are not caused by downloading some mysterious file that accidentally gets installed; the infections are caused by programs intentionally installed by the user, but programs with loopholes and security risks in the license agreements that the user did not read.
Obviously, there are a lot of programs of ill-repute (such as Kazaa) that are teeming with these license agreement add-ins, because that's what the programs are all about. What is becoming a disturbing trend is how many legitimate programs have dangerous things hidden in their license agreements.
I recently ran into a license agreement that totally blew me away. I was installing a copy of Iolo Technologies' System Mechanic 7, which is a tool for fixing a myriad of issues on your computer, when I almost clicked Next as usual at the 300 million page license agreement.
After all, it was a legit program. It's not like I was installing a file-sharing tool or something else that you would expect to be laden with open doors for viruses and spyware.
Something caught my eye in the first paragraph, however, just a small wording difference from the usual agreement. My interest was piqued, so I continued to read the entire document. Lo and behold, buried beneath many pages of gibberish that means nothing to the average legal user, was the disturbing nugget of information. The license agreement, under the heading of "Software Data Collection and Monitoring" stated the following: "The SOFTWARE contains features that allow iolo and/or third parties to collect data from, control, and/or monitor computers and devices running or interacting with the SOFTWARE in order to prevent unlicensed or illegal use of the SOFTWARE."
The English version of that is that Iolo is allowed to take information from your computer, including what other programs you are using, in order to make sure that you are not pirating the software.
Talk about a security risk! Even the fact that the program (which is supposed to be doing things like defragmenting the hard drive and fixing registry errors) would have the ability to do such a thing is beyond anything that would have been seen in a license agreement five years ago. Obviously efforts taken to prevent software piracy are commendable, but not at the expense of your user's privacy.
You can argue that a legitimate security company like Iolo is not going to do something illegal, but giving any company the permission (not just the ability, but the permission) to take hold of your computer is simply asking for problems. Who is to say that a dishonest employee of the company couldn't take control of your computer for his or her own purpose? What would stop the company from simply spying on you? It's pretty far-fetched, granted, but is it a risk that you really want to plunge into without reading about it first?
We live in a day and age of fine print. You see it in T.V. commercials and magazine ads, you hear it in that really fast talking guy's voice at the end of radio commercials, and now, you are seeing it in the license agreements of that new piece of software you just bought.
The difference, however, is that you don't store personal information in your T.V. or your radio. Read your license agreements and read them well. I am not advocating that you don a tin-foil hat and never install another program because it might be dangerous or include some nasty text in the agreement, but it only takes one program like that to wreck a computer or steal your information, and this is a simple and painless way to save yourself from problems down the road. |
