About SteadyScope

What this site is, who publishes it, and how the answers are put together.

SteadyScope is a help resource about everyday computer security, written for readers in Australia. It exists because the moment something goes wrong with a computer is the moment people are least well served: the search results fill with pages that want to sell something, the advice is written for technicians, and the calm explanation is hard to find. This site tries to be the calm explanation.

It is not a news site, it does not publish personal experiences, and it is not connected to any security vendor beyond the paid affiliate arrangement described below and on the affiliate disclosure page. There is no account to create, no newsletter, no form to fill in and nothing to download here.

Who publishes this site

How questions are chosen

Questions come from the way people actually describe problems rather than from the way products are marketed. The starting point is the phrasing itself: "why is my laptop so slow", "I clicked a link in a text", "is this pop-up real". Where several phrasings describe the same underlying situation, they are grouped onto one page, because the answer is the same and splitting it would make it harder to follow.

Three rules decide whether a question is published. It has to be answerable without inspecting the reader's device, because this site cannot see your machine and will never pretend to. It has to have a free course of action that comes before any paid one. And it has to be a question where a clear answer actually helps, rather than one where the only honest response is to see a technician — in which case the page says so and stops there.

How answers are checked

Where an answer depends on something that could change — what an agency does, what a law provides, what an operating system includes — it is written in one of three ways. Either it links to the organisation responsible, so you can read the current position yourself; or it is phrased as general guidance rather than as a statement about your particular machine; or it is left out. SteadyScope does not publish statistics, test results, benchmarks or awards, because it does not conduct testing and quoting someone else's figures without the ability to verify them would be no better.

The Australian sources referred to across the site are the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Scamwatch, the eSafety Commissioner, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Classification Board. Each is described on this site only by what it does; nothing is attributed to any of them that they have not published themselves.

How often answers are revised

Every page is read through and revised at least twice a year, and the date on which that was last done appears in the footer of every page and under the heading of each topic page. Pages are also revised out of cycle when a linked source changes materially, when a reader writes to point out an error, or when the pattern a question describes changes — the questions about unexpected messages, in particular, are the ones most likely to need updating.

Corrections are made directly on the page rather than published separately, and the reviewed date changes when they are. If you find something on this site that is wrong, write to info@steadyscope.online and it will be looked at.

The commercial relationship, stated plainly

SteadyScope earns money through paid affiliate links. One security product is mentioned by name across the site — Norton AntiVirus Plus — and the publisher has a commercial relationship with the affiliate network that operates the link to it. If you follow one of those links and buy a subscription, the network pays a commission to DONAU LOGISTICS - výroba obalů a balení s.r.o. You pay the same amount you would have paid had you gone to the vendor directly.

That relationship exists, and pretending otherwise would be the dishonest option. What it does not do is decide which questions appear here or what the answers say. Every question on this site that has a free answer gets the free answer first, several pages conclude that there is no reason to buy anything at all, and the affiliate link appears only where a paid subscription is genuinely one of the options a reader might be weighing. The affiliate disclosure sets out the arrangement in full.

What this site will not do

• It will not tell you that your device has a problem. It cannot see your device, and no web page can.
• It will not use countdowns, limited offers or any other form of manufactured urgency.
• It will not collect your details. There is no form, no newsletter and no account anywhere on the site.
• It will not publish reviews, ratings or personal accounts, whether its own or anyone else's.
• It will not present itself as an official, authorised or endorsed source for any product it mentions.

Legal information

The legal section contains the privacy policy, the cookie policy, the terms of use and the affiliate disclosure, each with its effective date. The privacy policy describes exactly what this site collects, which is less than most sites, and the cookie policy explains why there is no consent banner.

Trademarks: Norton AntiVirus Plus and the other product names, logos and brands mentioned on this page are owned by their respective owners. Other than the paid affiliate links explained in our disclosure, SteadyScope is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them.