Warning, Impotent Message

I've watched this particular message evolve. As I saw it on March 8, it said:



The first version said, "The publisher of this Web site has detected you have tracking software installed on your machine." Obviously, this must have run into some resistance from reputable Web sites which serve pop-under ads (WashingtonPost.com, et cetera) who were getting fingered for "scanning" readers' computers. The ad copy has changed and has moved from an Emily Dickinson capitalization model to that embraced by the rest of with high-faluting English degrees. Perhaps the next version of the ad will feature proper comma use, too.

The "serious violation of privacy" in the "program on your machine that monitors and transmits all of your online activities" refers, undoubtedly, to the very Web browser through which the user views the ad. Since most people don't know the intracicies of their computers' functionality (and by intracacies, I mean "basics), whomever runs this ad hopes to sell a script that empties the personal history on a routing basis. That is, that changes a user preference. Sweet. I hope it's a subscription and not an outright purchase.

Friends, Romans, and countrymen, and even you Franks, don't use "security" software downloaded from a pop-under ad. Never. Ever.

Thank you, that is all.