Spy v. Spy

An anonymous reader writes "MSNBC is reporting on a brewing battle between makers of spy software and anti-spy software. According to this article the makers of Spector and WinWhatWhere have added a feature to their new software that disables the popular anti-spy software Who's Watching Me."

Comments

Grounds for divorce.

[sulli]

I'm not married, but if I were, and I found my partner using WinWhatWhere or equivalent, I would walk out the same day. Such things are just not cool.

This is a trojan horse, plain and simple.

[realgone]

you can't blame a company for pulling this kind of tactic if it's the easiest way to do it.

Sure you can. Watch. I'll do it right now. =)

Without warning the user, WinWhatWhere disables another piece of software for which that person has paid good money. That's like IE deleting Netscape if it detects it on your system. That's like your trusty Chevy switching to Battlebots mode every time it detects a Honda in the highway.

It's destruction of property. (Or, since we're talking about software here, illegally depriving someone of their licensed usage of a product.)

Re:Mmmm.. FUN! And a legal nightmare..

[donutello]

if the spyware was installed by someone who doesnt own the computer

In that case, shouldn't you sue the person who installed it rather than the company who makes the software? Didn't we all agree that there was nothing wrong with writing DeCSS or Napster or other software - it was only the person using it for illegal purposes who was at fault?

Re: Corporate use of spyware

[Raetsel]

I've read about the use of spyware in the past... some very large companies make use of it. I seem to remember that Deloitte & Touche uses some spyware that's rather... comprehensive. I want to say some of the features included (among other things)...

• Logging every keystroke you make
• Logging the title of every window you open
• Recording screenshots of windows
• E-Mailing all of this to a designated person...

Not only is it something they use internally, it's also something they use in their consulting activities, on their clients' computers! You hire them, and you're under a microscope... very Big Brother. It goes way beyond the spying that's possible with the last version of Microsoft SMS that I used. (I admit, it's been a while!) Also, I've noticed that some people really don't pay attention to the fact that SMS has 'remote viewing' capabilities -- your sysadmin can watch you browse just like he/she watches the evening news. Then again, SMS's installation is rather obvious -- at least to the technically inclined.

I have to consider the other hand as well... If you're hiring a consulting company, they have an obligation to do their job to the best of their ability. That means using all the resources legally available to them -- no matter how distasteful. If you've got someone who's supposed to be doing data entry, and they're actually running their own little eBay store out of the supply room... well, you're going to need all the ammo you can get to convince the boss to fire his brother!

With the sentiment of "It's OUR computer, OUR time, and OUR money!", I don't think you're going to be seeing spyware-free companies advertising the fact anytime soon.

In fact, with the precedent that computers have been and continue to be monitored; a company could incur severe liability for deliberately not monitoring! Consider the potential liability burden when you don't catch sexual harrasment or some particularly nasty criminal activity... What happens to the company when it's shown that 'standard industry practices' would have given advance warning of, or even prevented [some illegal event]?

What happens? A check with LOTS of zeros to the left of the decimal... at the best, your lawyer gets it. At worst, THEIR lawyer gets one, THEY get one, etc...