Spyware then and now
Google brought back its oldest available index from the year 2001 on the occasion of its 10th birthday. It brought back certain nostalgic memories…I was into my second PC, a Compaq. That was the year I first got the internet connection at home through a 56kbps dial-up connection and that was the year I truly found the meaning of googling…
Read more
Ben Edelman: C-NetMedia’s Anti-Spyware Offerings and Advertising Practices
"Not every "anti-spyware" program is what it claims to be. Some truly have users’ interests at heart — identifying and removing bona fide risks to privacy, security, stability, or performance. Others resort to a variety of tricks to confuse users about what they’re getting and why they purportedly need it.
Read more
ComScore Says ‘Researchware’ Isn’t ‘Spyware’
"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."
Read more
