Evil Amazons

A few days ago the next door neighbor rang the bell and asked if I could look at her computer. She complained that it was running much slower than usual. A quick inspection revealed a lot of "tray lint" ... applications that install themselves in the system tray and are always loaded.

We went through the "Add or remove programs" panel and uninstalled a bunch of programs she never used. Then I moved some programs out of her "Startup" folder so they wouldn't automatically start every time she booted Windows. Finally, I went through her system registry and disabled a number of programs that were registered to run at boot-time. Some of them were benign, applications that manufacturers like to "helpfully" install. Others were stealthy adware that accessed the internet to serve ads or react to searches or report user habits. Removing all these eliminates many of the slowdowns.

I hate it when software invades your computer without permission and stealthily violates your privacy and degrades your performance. Some of it is relatively benign, like all the crud installed by Symantec / Norton applications or Hewlett-Packard applications that like to phone home for upgrades or make their applications start faster at the expense of others. Some are evil.

Today I cancelled my Amazon account. I've been using Amazon since the 90's to order books, music and DVD's. But no more. Amazon has a new video download service, Amazon Unbox, that is positively evil. By using their system, you give them permission to install software in your computer that spies on your habits and files, that runs all the time, and takes direction from Amazon to alter your system. It turns your computer into a zombie. Even though it seems like you're "buying" a video from them, you're in fact severely restricted in how you use the videos you've paid for, and Amazon can take away your ability to view them at will.

I don't like to deal with companies that are evil, so I've cancelled my account. I strongly suggest that you never, ever, use their download system. They're on my blacklist, right next to Sony and HP. Just say No.

Blog Tag: Opinion