I sure hope nobody in this thread is using Windows, Android, Edge, or Chrome…
What do you call a virus that doesn’t damage your system? An “app”
The blank stares and annoyed if not downright condescending dismissal I get from normies when I express a preference for avoiding spyware, adware, and other socially acceptable (read: profitable for those who make the rules and own the politicians) malware is some of the worst gaslighting I’ve ever been subjected to!
But, like, do you have something to hide?
Of course I do and so do you.
Terabytes of furry porn.
Only the 3,425 avant-garde photos I’ve taken of my penis
It’s ‘legitimate interest’
Lol
now it’s only spyware if it’s made in Russia or China
—NPR, literally yesterday
Like I know this is hyperbole for comedic effect, but it’s also completely wrong.
Maybe I’ve always misunderstood the term but it seemed to me that spyware was a category of malware that would secretly and excessively harvest user data whatever the purpose or the actor behind it. I’d guess this was more likely to be done for commercial or criminal purposes than state surveillance or espionnage.
Indeed, this quote seems a gross misrepresentation but is it not that harvesting of user data for commercial purposes has become so ubiquitous that the term has shifted to only designate malware used by actual spies?
Yeah, now they call it “telemetry” and pretend it’s somehow normal and acceptable. But no, it’s fucking not – it’s still spyware!
I might suggest that security suites like McAfee themselves becoming synonymous with Malware undermined the core concept of system protection ages ago.
Modern Windows based security protocols offer significant bloat with only marginal improvements in safety.
The bigger issue is that having your third-party “security” software betray you while using Windows is like pissing in an ocean of piss. The OS itself is spyware!
McAfee and other antivirus went full-on malware a long time ago. Sure, Microsoft was still collecting data from users, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to what they do in Windows 11 these days.
We don’t tolerate any of that foreign shit 'round 'ere
