Free comes with a price: adware can take over your device

  • 21 February 2016
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Userlevel 7
February 19, 2016 |  Posted in: Industry News
 
Know what to expect from free apps and how to protect against annoying pop-ups, spyware, and malware that can sabotage your devices
Who doesn’t like free stuff? Getting software that you don’t have to pay for is great. Unless you do have to pay. In fact, some so-called free software can cost businesses and individuals not only cash, but also precious time and energy that users need to spend trying to remove such programs from their computers.
 
Recent news reports, for example, warned users that they should get rid of adware apps Mintcast 3.0.1 and Shell&Services, which not only display unwanted pop-up ads, but also switch off safe browsing in Firefox. Of course this opens up your computer to all kinds of online threats. Called PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) in security lingo, such apps usually come attached to freeware packages and the user often has no idea that they have been installed on the computer.
 
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Userlevel 7
Disagree completely; free does not come at a price and I think  that to say so is disrespectful to the many legitimate freeware authors out there.
 
More correctly, in my view, it is a case of free blinds the users to the dangers of software apps per say and because it is free they forget about all the considerations they would make if the software were paid for, including and importantly whether they actually need it.
 
It is always still the case that "caveat umptor" even and perhaps, especially, if it is freeware.
 
 

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