ComScore Says ‘Researchware’ Isn’t ‘Spyware’
February 13th, 2008 by Shanmuga
"ComScore chairman and co-founder Gian Fulgoni believes there’s a distinction between overt and covert data gathering. Market researchers, he suggests, rely on "researchware," in contrast to criminal researchers who employ "spyware." "Market research tracking software (we have dubbed it ‘researchware’) needs to be differentiated from ‘adware,’ ’spyware,’ and ‘malware’ and should not be treated in the same way as these intrusive and potentially harmful applications," Fulgoni said in a blog post Wednesday. "We must not let the purveyors of spyware — the rotten apples — give market researchers a bad name."
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Category: Malware | No Comments »
"The story goes like this: late last year, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to participate in a "community" online (presumably a community made up of Sears and Kmart aficionados). In late December, security researcher Benjamin Googins at Computer Associates noticed, however, that the "community" actually installed software from comScore, a market research firm, in order to track the web activities of the sites’ visitors.
