Re: Oil Change software snoops through hard drive

At 8:31 PM 6/23/96, Alan Lewine wrote:
><<I wrote:
>>But this isn't MS's RegWiz. It's capabilities sound much greater, and
>>it's not clear how to opt out, etc. >>Tim May replied:
><<Not buying it and not installing it would appear to be an easy way to
>"opt out.">>
>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,
>or else it will auto install the user code on installation of whatever
>software has licensed it.

If I understand your comments (the strange wrapping doesn't make it easy),
you are confusing Oil Change with a virus or worm.

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

There may be privacy implications, but then there are privacy implications
in all sorts of other areas. Such as filling out a loan request, applying
for a credit card, visiting a doctor, etc. I'm of course not saying that
these privacy implications are not worth discussing, and do not vary from
example to example in seriousness, only that Oil Change hardly appears to
be a significant threat.

To repeat, no one is forced to buy and install Oil Change, and it certainly
doesn't copy itself onto the machines of unsuspecting users.


--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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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@rust.net                            PGP key ------^


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