Avoid unwanted so ware
THESE INSTALLATION TIPS AND TRICKS WILL HELP YOU BETTER CONTROL PRIVACY AND SECURITY ON YOUR PC OR SMARTPHONE.
WE’VE ALL BEEN there. We installed a new app and just clicked through the license agreement without reading it, then proceeded to just repeatedly click the next button until the whole ugly process was over. We know it’s bad, but life is short.
Of course, that’s so o en where they get you, making you agree to a horrible license, installing unwanted apps on your system, and doing things like changing you home page. So this month we thought we’d take a look at the install process – you rights and responsibilities, and a few of our favourite methods for avoiding unwanted so ware.
THE EULA AND THE LAW
Your typical End User License Agreement is a legal monstrosity designed to absolve the so ware creator of all responsibility and strip you of all recourse. It’s also written in dense legalese, ensuring that almost nobody ever reads it before accepting.
We’re not going to be unrealistic and recommend that you read EULAs before accepting them, but you should know your rights in this area. No matter what the EULA says, it doesn’t override Australian Consumer Law. And that law says (among other things) that: the product must be of acceptable quality, it must be t for a particular purpose, it must match the description provided, the seller can’t say “no refunds” (though they can say “no refunds in case of change of mind”), the seller can’t completely abrogate responsibility for consequential losses (eg. if the so ware damages your system in some way). We don’t have space here to cover all of it, but it’s absolutely worth heading to www. consumerlaw.gov.au and reading up on your rights as a consumer (especially as it applies to everything, not just so ware). You’ll likely nd that you have a lot more rights than you thought.
UNCHECKY
One of our favourite Windows apps, especially when we’re coming from a clean install and going through the process of reinstalling all
WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE UNREALISTIC AND RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ EULAS BEFORE ACCEPTING THEM, BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW YOUR RIGHTS IN THIS AREA.
our stu , is Unchecky (unchecky.com). It’s a small app that will automatically uncheck any optional boxes during the install process of a large database of apps.
How many times, for example, have you had something like McAfee or the Ask Toolbar installed unwillingly because instead of paying attention during the install process of an app you just did the Next->Next->Next click through install on an app you did want?
Unchecky lets you still do that fast install click through, but will automatically uncheck any boxes for unrelated “o ers” and will warn you and uncheck any boxes for installing third party apps.
Unchecky runs as a service in Windows, automatically kicking in whenever you try and install an app in its database. When you come across a situation where an app you’re installing might install a third-party app, it will pop up a warning. All checkboxes will default to “decline” for third party apps, browser toolbars and the like and any “o er” to change your browser home page will be rejected. It only take up about 2MB of memory when it running, but you can uninstall it if you like once you’re done installing all your apps.
NINITE
Another tool we love for fresh system installs is Ninite (ninite.com). Ninite lets you pick from a checklist of popular free apps, and it will automatically go and install them for you.
e process is pretty simple. You head to ninite.com and check the boxes on all the apps you’d like to install, then click on the Get Installer button.
is will download a custom app for you. Run this app, and then Ninite will automatically download and install the selected apps in the background, with no need for you to interact with the installers at all.
Apart from the convenience of it, Ninite has quite a few security and privacy advantages. Like Unchecky, it automatically rejects “o ers” and third party downloads. It only downloads apps from the o cial site, and it performs a hash check on the app to make sure you’re getting the real thing. It also automatically downloads 64-bit versions of app on 64-bit systems.
If you run the app again later, Ninite will also perform an update check on the installed apps. If there’s a new one available, it will download and install that.
ANDROID APP PERMISSIONS
Much like license agreements, most people tend to just click through app permissions on Android. It’s too hard to gure what permissions are reasonable and what are excessive, or what might constitute a danger to your privacy. If you’re worried that apps might be jacking your phone or monitoring your location or activity, it’s worth installing a permission monitor on your phone.
e best ones tend to require root access to your phone and App Ops, which was an excellent hidden tool in older versions of Android, has been removed. But there are a few good ones that are still worth exploring.
Our current favourite is Clueful Privacy Advisor, from BitDefender. It looks not just at the your app permissions, but also checks a database of known applications for potentially damaging features.
It provides both an overall rating for your Android system as well as granular details on individual apps and what they might do to harm your privacy. You can use it to get a quick overview of how your installed apps do on the privacy front, and you can actually uninstall the worst threats from within Clueful.
ANDROID . MARSHMALLOW
One of the changes in the new version of Android is an access time permission request. No longer do you just provide a blanket agreement to permissions at install time; instead when an app tries to access a system function you’ll be asked if you want to give it permission.
For example, if an app tries to access your phone, the rst time it does so you’ll get a popup asking if you’d like to allow it. Once you do, that app will have that permission forever. You can also view and modify app permissions from the settings menu, which brings it more in line with how iOS treats such permissions.