brin
Super Member
Actually there is some very good software that is 100% free... not all developers are as greedy/devious as some think... Irfanview is one of them...
As for tracking/spying/phoning home etc...almost all commercial software uses some sort of reporting/phoning home application....FYI...every time you open most commercial software applications they "phone home" and send data from your computer to the (home) company...including Microsoft, Adobe etc. etc....
it is very easy to prevent any program/application from connecting (outbound) to the net...just a use a good leak-proof firewall...it's simple....
IF you don't believe this....install a firewall and set it to report all outbound connections...then open just about any commercial software app....you will get a pop-up saying something like "Adobe is trying to connect to the Internet" allow/disallow...most firewalls will remember your selection...
In the same respect...if you want to see what scripts are running on web pages you visit...use Firefox and install the 'NoScript" add-on....then visit a web page and it will list all the scripts (spying/tracking etc) running on the page...
If you want a real scare...with NOScript running open a Facebook etc. page...it is unbelievable how many tracking/spying scripts are running...
GIMP is a great image editing/manipulation program...to use it without any tracking just set your firewall to block outbound connections for the program...
Thanks , I just downloaded " No Script " for my Firefox....I appreciate the advice...