more on internet explorer safety: plenty of press, but do people listen?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Charles Arthur, The Independent" <carthur () independent co uk>
Date: July 6, 2004 8:18:49 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] internet explorer safety: plenty of press, but do  
people listen?

Hi ...

At 7:36 am -0400 on 6/7/04, you wrote:


>  There are only two choices left with IE: Either don't browse the web
> with it, or don't use it for financial transactions.

The first choice includes the second. There's a gathering news roll
suggesting avoidance for IE (on Windows; on the Mac it's pretty safe).
My own piece in The Independent in London:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp? 
story=537951
("Microsoft's browser dominance at risk as experts warn of security  
holes"
- I didn't write the headline!)

Steve Wildstrom in BusinessWeek:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_28/b3891053_mz006.htm
(entitled "Why I'm staying away from Internet Explorer")

The International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/527705.html (The End User: Safer PCs need  
safer
browsers)

and dozens that you could find by a suitable Google News search.

The problem is though - which I've discovered in trying to push this  
story
through the paper - is that it's surprisingly hard in the media to tell
people a story which affects *them*. Story about distant war? Easy.  
Story
about politicians they've never met arguing? Doddle. Story about how the
browser *they* use right now, perhaps to read this story, is a threat to
their PC and bank balance? "Well, can we say 'Millions of users are
affected by..' rather than 'If you're reading this....'"

I feel that the risk of doing a standard news story treatment of this
problem is that people think it's like starvation in Africa - something
happening to other people. Whereas the reality is that it's very  
possibly
happening to you. If you're using IE on Windows. Which personally I'm  
not,
and don't intend to.

        Charles
--
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
The Independent newspaper on the Web: http://www.independent.co.uk/
        It's even better on paper

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