Oil Change software snoops through hard drive

[Jennifer Mansfield-Jones]

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On Sun, 23 Jun 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 8:31 PM 6/23/96, Alan Lewine wrote:
> >Maybe i'm confused, but oil change sounds like a mole that can burrow
> >unbidden into user's disks. I don't think user installation is required,

> It's a commercial product, offering a (putative) service to those who buy
> it. One "opts out" by not buying and installing it.

I thought Alan was implying that Oil Change might be licensed by other
software vendors, and then supplied as a "service" without warnings.
For instance, one might purchase the NiftyKeen Win95 graphics editor, 
and find in a footnote on page 58 of the manual that the product will
automatically update itself unless the user explicitly refuses the 
Customer Convenience Package during installation.

In any case, I don't think it's a bad idea to point out the potential
problems -- some people just don't notice these things unless the
implications are spelled out in at least as much detail as the glowing
marketer fluff.

  regards,
`=-`=-`=-`=-                                          -='-='-='-='
 Jennifer Mansfield-Jones   http://www.rust.net/~strix/strix.html
 strix at rust.net                            PGP key ------^


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