Spyware Coming Under Scrutiny

trick-knee writes "Nytimes.com has an article considering the ethics of snoopware. In it, TrueActive is given positive press for removing a 'feature called "silent deploy", which allows the buyer to place the program on someone else's computer secretly via e-mail, without having physical access to the machine', although little criticism is made for making the stuff in the first place. Supposedly, Symantec and Network Associates have added features to their antivirus programs that detect snoopware, which may be a good thing. One surprising point you may be shocked to hear is that 'at least one program... may not pose a real threat of spying, at least. Mr. Gordon said that his company's security researchers, working with the Justice Department, were unable to find any actual working software that could be downloaded from the LoverSpy site after paying the fee. He seemed less than stunned by the notion that a product advertised via spam might not be all that it was claimed to be.'"

Comments

Re:Spyware versus Virus

[Lane.exe]

Because generally, users give consent in some form to spyware. Remember the last time you installed AOL IM for your little brother or sister, and at the end of the install, you were offered a free "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to cash in on that helpful Bonzai Buddy/Gator/GAIN software that AOL was nice enough to include with their product? Well, you and I may know that the "free deal" is a bad thing, but Joe 56k-Modem thinks "Hey, if it's good enough for AOL, it's good enough for me!" and goes ahead with the install, which then makes him agree to the license which lets them do this.

It's more or less the same thing that happens with a Microsoft EULA. You agree to it, so it's not illegal anymore. I'd be curious to see what would happen to a virus writer who included a EULA with his next e-mail worm. Since mostly stupid people open those e-mail attachments anyway, a little box popping up with "OK" and "Cancel" and a license agreement might be a nice little legal loophole.

Please be advised that I am not advocating the wanton destruction and/or infection of Microsoft systems. They'll do so on their own if you watch 'em long enough.

Comcast spyware

[Darth Fredd]

My sister got broadband for her windows PC. Comcast gave her a cd with the instructions "pop this in your computer and your broadband will work". So she did.

It reconfigured the network settings so the broadband *did* work-but it also changed a bunch of stuff such as the IE icon, the title of IE "Microsoft Explorer-provided by comcast", bringing up popups and breaking the browser at random moments: which was all small stuff. The thing I worry[d] about was strange proccess's running..which could be anything, because my sister gets taken in by those "YOUR COMPUTER IS BROADCASTING AN IP ADDRESS" popups.

She never signed anything, never clicked "yes", it was all autorun.