Zaptastic: Blueprint for a Widget of Mass Destruction. ⇒
8 May 2005, evening time
Dashboard, the future home of spyware and adware on the Macintosh? I hope not. This link was found via Waxy.org.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
A smart way to protect yourself I read over at Macintouch:
My preference for the moment (I happen to like having a widget automatically installed – when I know about it, that it is). Go to the ~/Library/Widgets folder. Command-click on it, and select Enable Folder Actions. Command-click on it again, and select Attach a Folder Action. Select “Add – new item alert.scpt”. Repeat this for Home/Library/Widgets for each and every user account on your computer. Now when a new widget is added, intentionally or secretly, an informative dialog box will notify you that that the folder contents have changed, and even give you the option of looking at the new item. If you didn’t intentionally add the widget, trash it, and you’re safe. At least I’m pretty sure you’re safe. -- Gregory Lawhorn
by ramanan on May 9 2005, 1:53 pm #
A grad student at Columbia has more to say on the security of Dashboard.
by ramanan on May 12 2005, 4:23 pm #