Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo Anti-Spy Favors Yahoo's Adware Partners?
prostoalex writes "Yahoo's new browser toolbar is advertised to clean out adware and spyware from the user's PC and from the sound of it is a good tool to rely on. Not so, says eWeek, whose Matt Hicks notices that Yahoo excludes by default two popular adware/spyware applications - Claria (ex-Gator) and WhenU.com - Claria has commercial bonding with Yahoo! Inc."
Claria is one of the most prevalent and intrusive spyware programs out there. It's a major omission to not handle it.
This just shows yet another benefit of open source software. When a publicly traded corporation is solely behind the development of a closed product, don't be suprised when they try to protect their interests, at the consumer's expense.
The Technonaut
You mean that thing that was really cool back in 1995 but has become the net equivalent of a tourist trap?
I haven't even visited the site in years, literally. Do people still use that? Between the slanted stories on the front page and the increasing use of flash on the site, they drove me away a long time ago.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Gator/Claria is classified as 'adware' (as opposed to spyware) by the toolbar, and all adware by default is not blocked.
The toolbar will block them, it requires users clicking on a checkbox somewhere in the options. This makes it just a bit less sleazy.
The main problem with all of this is "where do you draw the line between spyware, adware, and software?"
Unlike viruses or worms, it's not at all clear where the line is between "good" and "bad." It may be that Claria has a valid business model, in which case they have a strong case that their software shouldn't be lumped in with the likes of clientman, or other truly nasty spyware. Certainly, their business model is not illegal today. (Of course, I personally don't like it, and would never use their software.)
Should Yahoo include "windows update" or "redhat update network" in their list of spyware?
Yeah, they might not be playing fair in the spyware finding business, but at least they are still honest with the news reporting.
The Slashdot story is misleading though. It implies that a special case is made for these two companies, and that the tool ignores them. What is actually the case is that the two companies 'products' are in the adware category (along with others) which isn't enabled for filtering by default.
It's not quite the same as the system refusing to remove them, they're just in the category that isn't removed by default.
Cant we make anti-spyware apps that flood the spyware collection systems with LOADS of useless data?
Kinda makes spyware apps useless if they have to spend $$$ on extra bandwidth to handle the new data and $$$ on CPU Cycles to sort through the Krud.
hehe - and then watch as a new business of "anti-flood" filters are built for the spying companies!
Namely, "fun/amusement" applets -- think applets like "XEyes". Yes, I will admit, when I was in college I used to get a kick out of running things like "BartEyes" (A Bart Simpson knockoff of XEyes), and although I have outgrown them, My mom still likes her "Felix", a cat that walks around on her screen.
Felix is the last amusement applet I will ever let my mom run. I only let her run it now because it predates spyware being trojaned into these little applets. Today, I don't trust ANY fun/amusing "applet" because IMO they all potentially carry a spyware payload.
Sadly, I have noticed that this trend of spyware payloads has begun to move itself into mildly useful, free utitlity applets as well -- I have heard of a weather reporting applet and a time server synchronization applet carrying nasty payloads. I suppose it won't be much longer before the majority of nifty utilities from places like tucows.com are suspect.
I think sometimes that we live in sad times.
Really, this opens up a question of "Just what, exactly, is adware/spyware/malware?"
I remember a day when WeatherBug was a cool application being sponsored by local TV stations who basically used it to promote the WeatherNet equipment that they had invested in. No popups, just a few ads that mostly linked you to the TV station's website and sometimes had a picture of the station's weather team. Of course, now that thing is a pop-up crazy monster. But how can you say on which day was the day that this program suddenly turned "evil"... it's not exactly a binary state.
It's hard to ban software such as WhenU because the users end up agreeing somewhere along the line to a AUP/TOS/EULA that lays out exactly what WhenU is going to do. We need better standards for how such documents are displayed, but we can't exactly prevent people from agreeing to them if they really want to without taking out some programs that we like such as ad-blockers in the process.
Really, this is a game of blury definitions...
Wasnt it Yahoo that changed the "subscription" settings on all their current (at the time) email users to have them "opted-in" to all their spam partners not too long ago?
Fool me once...
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.