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On the American Idol stage, finalist Taylor Hicks is full of tics. Online, his screensavers are full of bugs.

So says a new survey conducted by a Web-patrolling consumer software company, which found 46 percent of popular downloaded Hicks-themed screensavers contained spyware or led to outbreaks of pop-up ads and spam email.

"At some level, he's the most dangerous American Idol," said Shane Keats, market strategist for SiteAdvisor.com.

On another level, Ace Young is the most dangerous Idol finalist.

Though eliminated from the Fox singing competition Apr. 19, Young is second only to Hicks for having his momentarily famous face used by sneaky spyware manufacturers. His screensavers turned up hidden computer-clogging extras 36 percent of the time, the SiteAdvisory.com study said.

Even more troubling to Keats, the problem Young screensavers led computers to two "sexually explicit sites." Given the number of children who follow Idol and are likely to follow their favorite Idols online, Keats said the spyware makers "should be ashamed of themselves."

So far, Keats said he hasn't seen any infected Idol-related emails: "I don't think we've got the Ace Young virus going around."

:o It's terrible that unscrupulous people are using Ace and Taylor like that, but I don't think it's the first time it's been done. There are scumbags everywhere on the internet, it seems.

FYI... everytime I downloaded a song I would get some girly skin site. I added some pertection to my computer and it doesn't happen anymore. I got the protection from my cable internet provider for free.


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