The things I hear about IE7 that concern me the most are reports that it tightens security quite a bit, and that can be a problem for legitimate applications. Double-edged sword etc.

The ability to copy the clipboard from a Web page could be an invasion of privacy. I know I used that feature one time to read the clipboard of a Nigerian scammer I was stringing along, and once picked up a list of email addresses for his victims. I was "in the right" because he was a badguy, but you can see how it could be used against the innocent.

My biggest nightmare, though, are reports that IE7 pops up a security alert about multimedia, such as Windows Media or QuickTime or Flash; and that it won't allow them to start automatically but requires you to give your consent in a popup alert.

Anybody seen that?

It's a nightmare because right now I'm working on an ambitious multimedia animation, and that would pretty much destroy it. It has several audio clips that have to start up and run at precise times, and that won't happen if you have to click a bunch of OK buttons to let it run.

Seems like we're always between a rock and a hard place on the Web. Or maybe trying to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis...on one side the hackers threaten to bring it all down, and on the other, the countermeasures threaten to make the Web unusable. What to do, what to do?