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Spyware or Researchware?

prostoalex writes "When the story of Firefox Web site visitors being predominantly male was published, many questioned the methodology used to acquire such research data. This MSNBC article talks about another research company, ComScore Networks, using a free antivirus utility to lure the Web users into downloading a small utility to their hard drives. The catch? The software watches not only sites visited, but even locations of the mouse clicks. ComScore swears the final data does not contain any personal information, but, as the article states, anti-spyware utility manufacturers are still thinking whether to include it on their list."

14 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Gendericator by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    To find out the gender of a visitor, just create a site which requires visitors to hold one key while moving the mouse.

    1. Re:Gendericator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      But without any social interaction nobody has a reason to lie.

      i'm a hermaphrodite, i have to lie, i'm never an option to them!

    2. Re:Gendericator by eric76 · · Score: 5, Funny
      most people are honest about their gender unless they are in a chat room. But without any social interaction nobody has a reason to lie.

      On the other hand, if they had a slashdot poll asking what is your sex and the possible choices were "male", "female", "none", "both", "not applicable", and "i ate a pizza for supper last night", the "male" and "female" would probably be on the low end of the answers.

    3. Re:Gendericator by OneArmedMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      http://www.bash.org/?100796

      where the men are men
      the women are men
      and everyone under 18, has a .gov ident!

    4. Re:Gendericator by Trejkaz · · Score: 5, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, the Cowboy Neal option forgets You!

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    5. Re:Gendericator by rjelks · · Score: 4, Funny

      I lie about personal information all the time. It's my small way of messing up the statistics.

    6. Re:Gendericator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Ahem. Forgetting the "Yes please" option are we?

    7. Re:Gendericator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Bite my shiny metal ass!

      You have a robotic donkey?

    8. Re:Gendericator by fgl · · Score: 4, Funny

      Me too, Im a 99 year old grandmother of 30 from Albania, who also owns a multi-million dollar IT company that survived the .com bubble & employs over 1000 people.
      I still get porn spam though.

      --
      Go Away! Not for Sale
  2. Oh boy by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, that story had all the right buzzwords to get the pitchforks wavin!

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  3. With a name like that.... by thegoofeedude · · Score: 1, Funny

    With a name like ScamCore, er, ConScore, woops, I mean ComScore, no wonder people are suspicious!

  4. Antivirus software, huh? by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't that sort of app supposed to be CHECKING for trojans? Sheesh.

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    1. Re:Antivirus software, huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Takes one to know one.

  5. check out the anti-spyware factory by hdh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anti-spyware manufacturers? Is that like steel manufacturing? Is anti-spyware drop-forged, hammer forged, or die cast? Maybe it's extruded like cheerios.

    --
    I like toast!