The virus you buy
Wednesday, January 21 2009
This is a little off-topic, but I want to vent a little…
Up until last fall, my only computer was a Dell laptop. McAfee Security-Center was free with the machine, and each year I paid to keep my subscription current. As the machine got older, I noticed that each time I upgraded, McAfee demanded a little more of my system resources. Finally, in September, it got to the point where McAfee sucked up so many cycles that it made the computer unuseable for the things I need it to do. So I bought a Mac.
Today I got an email from McAfee, informing me they will “auto-renew” my subscription for another year. I don’t remember asking them to do this, and I’ve now discovered that undoing it is a major hassle. In any case, I have no use for their software anymore, so I’m definitely not going to pay for it.
In all of this, it strikes me that McAfee isn’t an “anti-virus” – it’s the alpha virus. McAfee installed itself on my machine, interfered with my use of the machine, extracted my credit card number, charged stuff to my card, and finally proved resistant to removal – all things that I feared a virus might do. The fact that McAfee removed other viruses was clearly ancillary to its primary role; it was just protecting its turf. I suppose I should be glad McAfee didn’t take my credit card number all the way to Jamaica or something, but it’s only a small comfort.
I’m sure somebody else has pointed out – or predicted – the convergence between virus and anti-virus software, but this is how I came to that conclusion.
This is quite witty! Thanks for the smile.