One recent evening, I was sitting at home, connected to the Internet
and checking email on my trusty iBook 466, when I received the
following disturbing email message:
Every move you make on your computer is being logged. From the
Internet sites you visit to the documents you open, you are being
tracked. Even if you attempt to delete these tracks, Windows retains
secret log files. Deleting Internet caches and searching for history
files would take hours of work manually. <Product name> deletes
all these items from your computer automatically and as often as you
like!
<Product name>, the most effective, user friendly, cost
efficient way to wipe your hard drive clean of all logs that your
computer records while you surf the Web.
No more worrying about what people will see on your
computer.
Go to this url to download http://www.<product
website>.net
Note: I have edited the message not only to hide the
name of the product advertised, but also to correct spelling and
grammatical mistakes.
Imagine my alarm! Here I am checking email and surfing the Net on my
Apple computer running Mac OS 9.2.1, and somehow Windows is not only
watching everything I do, but keeping track of it, too. Not only do I
(obviously) not have Windows installed on the iBook, I didn't even have
Airport turned on. How'd they do that?!? That's certainly one
incredible little product Redmond makes if it can do all that to a Mac
user. I can only guess what Windows might be capable of doing to
someone who actually has the program installed. Makes you wonder if
OS X might be spying on the Windows crowd, too. The implications
for corporate espionage are boundless!
BULLETIN: We now interrupt this column for a miscellaneous, only
semi-related rambling: Speaking of espionage, the front page of this
week's issue of Network
World carries the following headline, "Former federal agent calls
[Windows] XP a threat to national security." My initial reaction to
this story was that any Windows version running on a computer
which holds government secrets is a de facto threat to national
security. Sorry, that was a low blow, but sometimes my self-control
wears down and I just can't resist.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled column. The above-quoted email
preys on the (not unwarranted) security fears of computer users in
general and Windows user in particular. Since the tragic events of
September 11, the government has warned the Information Technology
sector to be on alert for possible attempts at cyber-terrorism. With
such recent viruses as Code Red and Nimda (both of which were basically
nonevents for Mac users) appearing even before Sept. 11, this is
certainly a prudent suggestion. Everyone - from the government to
corporations to the casual home computer user - probably has some
information stored on their computer that they would rather not be
circulated among the general population. Whether the information be
details of national defense, corporate trade secrets, or your J.C.
Penney charge card number, your secrets should remain just that:
yours.
In the next few weeks, The Practical
Mac will be exploring Internet and network security from a legal as
well as a technical viewpoint. In the meantime, you should wrap your
PowerBook in aluminum foil; it will prevent that pesky Windows program
from spying on you.
I continue to receive comments on the recent on the
Building a Web Presence on a Shoestring series. I want
to share one representative email, this one from reader Alan Roberts:
Thanks for the great articles "Building a Web Presence on a
Shoestring." The first one finally conquered my reluctance to use the
newer Web creation programs. I have observed and tried many of them,
but I never have liked how much they rely on tables for layout and
insert other browser-specific HTML tags and other unnecessary things
into the final HTML, so I've done it by hand for years, with 1997-level
HTML. Wonderfully backward compatible pages though.
Since Claris Home Page generates HTML in the style I like to
work with, I bought a copy on
eBay that includes ClarisWorks 4.0 and at least one other Claris
program, all for $14.00! Now I can get to work on my site. I am happy
now.
I replied to Alan that he got an even better deal on
eBay
than I did. I paid almost $20 for my copy of Claris Home
Page alone! Those of you who wrote to say that you are working on your
first Web page, please keep me updated. I would like to spotlight a few
in a future column. 
