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."

Comments

Irony

[r_glen]

Does anyone else find it humerous that Yahoo! is carrying the story?

Re:Irony

[SnakeJG]

Yeah, they might not be playing fair in the spyware finding business, but at least they are still honest with the news reporting.

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

>> Does anyone else find it humerous that Yahoo! is carrying the story?

It's one way of making sure you have an exclusive story.

1. Do something naughty.
2. Report your naughtiness.
3. Profit!

This is not a first

[KoriaDesevis]

Yahoo is not the first to pull this stunt. At one time, Norton Internet Security (I think it was NIS2000, specifically) had known holes in the firewall component for different spyware applications. After enough people pitched a fit, they have since closed those holes (supposedly).

Re:This is not a first

[tolan-b]

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.

Re:This is not a first

[LostCluster]

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...

Re:This is not a first

[TheUnFounded]

I think google nicely sums up what malware really is

This is a farce...

[BodyCount07]

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.

Yahoo?

[HBI]

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.

Yahoo! Mail Spam Filter

[lexbaby]

Just like you can't report Launch.com e-mail to your Yahoo! mail account as spam. Of course, Launch.com is actually part of Yahoo! now.

Wait a tick!

[thewldisntenuff]

Ook, let's hold on a minute...AND RTFA (Again)! Yahoo's toolbar uses PestPatrol for its' spyware application, and even the article states that "On its Web site, PestPatrol does categorize software from Claria as adware." But later states that - "In a test of PestPatrol's free, online scanning tool, eWEEK.com confirmed that it does detect the presence of Claria's GAIN software automatically." Hmph, I says...I don't think (I dunno, maybe I'm not into the /. conspiracy theory mentality yet ;) ) Yahoo! is behind this, it smells like an issue with the PestPatrol software....But who knows? Not everyone is out to get us, people....

For those who don't read the article.

[Galaga88]

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.

And,

[abscondment]

Additionally: In a desperate attempt to fuel Yahoo's status as a search engine, the new Yahoo! toolbar blocks google.com via the hosts file...

Or not.. :)

spyware vs. adware vs. software

[The_Bagman]

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?

Re:Only impacts Microsoft Windows users

[karmatic]

Actually, I've come across 3 spyware XPIs so far. One of them simply downloaded their .exe, ran it, and installed their IE spyware on your system.

The other 2 actually manipulated the Mozilla DOM, and as they were written in java, they can work just fine in OS X, or Linux.

Re:Only impacts Microsoft Windows users

[mlk]

Thats only cos SF.net rejected my project :(

Decent anti-spyware

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Spyware has ruined a whole sector of free software

[bnavarro]

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.

Re:Figures.

[starphish]

I love that "Microsoft" is a recognizable adjective that can be used in the place of "unethical" or "evil". This could be a sign of the beginning of then end for them.

Re:This is not a first - even for Yahoo

[robochan]

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...

Absolutely untrue

[Chairboy]

This is wrong, NIS did not make holes in the firewall for spyware. NIS had a method for applying preset rules to known programs so they would work without the user needing to be an expert. You and I might know that a web browser needs to access outbound on port 80, as well as FTP rules, but Joe User doesn't.

This is a great way to make a firewall usable for novices, but it had a flaw. It used the .EXE name to apply the rule, and it was quickly discovered that you could rename a malicious program to use the same name of a known good program and take advantage of those rules. This was quickly fixed by adding a digital signature database that tracked each known good EXE (each version released wherever possible) so that only the real programs could take advantage of this functionality.

A couple of people saw the preset rules when NIS was originally released and made the assumption that since they listed a bunch of programs, there must be spyware in there. This was not true, and the NIS team watched those new rules like a hawk to make sure that no bad guys got in.

How do I know this? Because I worked on NIS 2000 2.0 and had the privilege of leading the NIS 2001 through NIS 2004 quality assurance team.

FUD is not something that Microsoft has a monopoly on, as the parent post proves, well meaning but wrong end users can dish it out too.

Actually that's probably a "COVER OUR ASSES"...

[Moryath]

Remember how much Claria/Gator pitched a fit at sites on the 'net who were calling them spyware (YOU'RE SPYWARE SPYWARE SPYWARE GODDAMNIT YOU LOUSY LIARS - I've seen your trickler bullcrap and the javascript on webpages that slips the trickler into Windows, it's invasive spyware and that's final), going as far as to threaten legal action against a few?

Yahoo's lawyers obviously do. The fact that the "Adware" category isn't set for removal by default is Yahoo's fuckup - the fact that Gator is in that category is probably a decision made by their lawyers.

What's far more insidious is likely to be all the bots/spyware/trojans that will, by next week, be disabling this portion of Yahoo's product the moment they find it just like viruses go after virus scanners and several trojans spyware programs go after Ad-Aware/Spybot/etc already.

Or you can just click "Also scan for adware"

[sleepyrobot]

This is a mountain made from a mole hill. All the user has to do is check the box that says "Also scan for adware" in the main dialog box of the application, and the tool will delete Claria and the rest of the intrusive garbage on the user's machine.

Here is a screenshot that shows how simple it is to remove adware using the tool.

Yahoo Anti-Spy

The article makes it sound like you have to go clicking through a bunch of option screens, but the truth is that removing adware is exactly one click more complex that simply running the program.

You guys are so ready to excoriate Yahoo, but all they've done is provide a free, easy-to-use tool for common users to delete crap from their computers. So what if they rely on the user to click *one cleary labeled check box* to delete software created by Yahoo's own business partners?

Keep in mind that the program has no negative side effects...even according to the progam's critics, its worst sin is a sin of omission.