Luana asks about Google Pack
I saw a "Google Pack" site where I could download free software, including the free start edition of Spyware Doctor, Picasa, Star Office and several other programs. You could select which programs you wanted. When reading the license agreement, I noticed that in the privacy part, it mentioned information being able to be collected and sent to the software programs and third party, even oversees. I was suspicious about this and did not click to agree.

I have and am using Spy Sweeper but have read in my CloudEight newsletters that it is ok to have more than one spyware program. I noticed that Spy Blaster also was a free program to download. Is this Google Pack and also this Spy Blaster safe to download?

I trust your suggestions and have been a long time subscriber to your premium newsletter.

Our answer
Thank you, Luana. We have never recommended the "Google Pack" in spite of the fact, as most all our subscribers know, we're big fans of Google. For those who've been reading our newsletters for awhile, they know that we're not fans of any kind of software bundling even if the bundle contains nothing particularly bad for your computer.

We don't think for example Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, Panda, TrendMicro and others need to foist four or five programs on consumers. It's a marketing ploy that is intended to make the consumer gasp at the wonderful value he or she perceives in so much software for one price. It's not a good deal because the price of the bundle keeps going up and up and up. And, there's never a case we've seen where a bundle of software provides the best software for every function.

We've always felt that consumers are better off going with specific programs for specific tasks. It's much better and much less resource intensive. Save your RAM and avoid bundles.

Google Pack is free and there are perhaps one or two programs in it that you might find useful. If so, you shouldn't hesitate to download them. But to download the whole pack just because it is free would dump more software on your computer that you probably don't need.

As far as the privacy policies and license agreements in the Google Pack, please keep in mind that the Google Pack is a collection of programs from various developers and companies - each with its own license agreement, privacy policy and terms of use - and all but the programs developed by Google have nothing to do with Google except that Google is acting as a distributor of these other 3rd-party program. That's why there are so many question marks in the privacy policy - it has to cover all the products in the Google Pack - some of which come from other companies outside Google's control.

Finally, Spyware Blaster isn't specifically an "Anti-Spyware" program. It is designed to help you keep spyware off your computer in the first place. So rather than being a spyware prevention, spyware detection and spyware removal tool like Spyware Doctor, it is a pro-active spyware prevention tool only. That being said, it is a very good one - and one that we've recommended in our newsletters more than once.

Our advice? If you're interested in particular programs in the Google Pack you're probably OK to download the ones you really need - but you most likely won't want to download and install the entire Google Pack on your computer. Most all of the programs in the Google Pack are available separately from Google and directly from the 3rd-party developer's Web sites. You might be better off just going to, for instance, the Spyware Blaster home page and downloading it from them directly rather than downloading it as part of the Google Pack.

Here's the home page of Spyware Blaster. You'll find links to their privacy policy and other important information on their home page as well. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html .