Who Invests in Spyware Companies?

NW writes "Ben Edelman just published a list of major investors in spyware companies totaling over $139 million in venture capital." Slashdot has not verified Edelman's information, and please note that harassing the receptionist at these places is unlikely to cause any change in their investment policies.

Comments

Don't have to take my word for it -- sources

[bedelman]

As to "Slashdot has not verified...": I've cited sources for each report of funding of each specified spyware company. See the links within my page -- just click on the "$40 million" and similar hyperlinks to see the source (news coverage, press release) reporting that funding.

Re:Companies...

[mmaddox]

You didn't understand the table. The first column is NOT the investor, but the spyware company. The SECOND column is the investment firm.

0wnership Society

[Doc Ruby]

Remeber that "investors" are the owners. They can hide behind corporations, but the owners are responsible for the actions of their companies, even if they're not legally accountable.

Re:0wnership Society

[Eric Giguere]

... the owners are responsible for the actions of their companies, even if they're not legally accountable.

There are different levels of legal accountability, actually. Courts will "pierce the corporate veil" when necessary to get at the people who are ultimately responsible for things. Regulatory bodies are getting more aggressive about this kind of stuff -- look at all the fuss over Nortel, where a bunch of board members have just quit and former senior executives are going to pay back millions in bonuses. You have to think carefully before being a company director these days.

That said, I'm sure that these spyware companies are doing things in a legal manner and getting end users to agree to being spied on. Whether this is ethical is another matter, but I don't think VCs are generally out looking for the most ethical investments, they're looking for the ones that make them the most money.

Eric
On the lighter side: How the Vioxx recall reduced spam

Who Advertises With These Firms

[bedelman]

I have on hand lots of information about advertisers supporting these companies. One complication is that some of the advertisers are unintentional participants -- e.g. the ads were placed by affiliates, apparently often acting without authorization by the underlying merchants. Often, the link format makes it possible to tell the difference between an affiliate's ad and an "official" ad.

As to Gator advertisers: See Gator advertisers as of 2003 and Gator advertisers based on data from Claria's S-1 disclosure.

In any event, I'll be updating my site with more advertiser information in the future. It's at the top of my list of priorities.

Re:Weatherbug?

[lucabrasi999]

Personally, I wouldn't trust Bill Gates, but your parents might. He thinks it's spyware.

Re:Weatherbug?

[Maestro4k]

• I would love a good source to prove that Weatherbug is spyware. My parents use it (the full, paid for version). I had heard that it was spyware and told them so, but my brother in law, who is an executive in the IT department of a major corporation, told them it wasn't. Guess who they believed? -Ken

I can't prove it's spyware, but I can prove they do things against your wishes, see my reply to the grandparent here for more info. I'd highly recommend they get rid of it, there are alternatives that aren't evil.

Here is the dirt on Weatherbug

[AtariAmarok]

click here for a detailed analysis.

If it really was not spyware, they would not feel a need to spam message boards to say it.

Re:Weatherbug?

[swv3752]

Weatherfox/ForecastFox works pretty well as an extension in Firefox.

Example of spyware installed via security holes

[bedelman]

I recently made a video showing spyware installed through security holes.

My records (packet sniffer logs, etc.) do tell me what specific exploits were used, though my public write-up doesn't include all these details. In any event, the video is certainly sufficient to validate the "hefty claim" of software installed through security holes.