Susan,
Security patches have nothing to do with whether a computer is used for
business or pleasure:
- They prevent someone from hijacking your computer when you are online,
which would allow them to send Spam/Viruses from your machine to
unsuspecting users (perhaps those in your address book).
- They can steal your personal data. Do you use Quicken? Do you do your tax
return on your computer (stealing your SSN, name and address can allow
someone to steal your identity and destroy your credit)? Do you do
electronic banking (they could transfer funds and/or empty your account)?
- They can delete your personal data and/or destroy your files.
So, if none of the above is a risk you care about, I suppose you could
ignore the security patches. I certainly wouldn't recommend that, but each
person has to make their own decisions.
Consider it like buying renters/homeowners/fire/auto insurance. None of us
buy it knowing that we'll suffer a loss, but we buy it hoping that we will
never have to collect on it. Same with security patches.
If your disk space is that tight, it's time to upgrade HDDs. If you look in
your Sunday newspaper ads, you'll find very large HDDs for very short money
(usually after rebates).
