Anti Spyware Scene Warms Up
Published: Friday, May 20, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
ANTI-SPYWARE SCENE WARMS UP
CDT wants to hold advertisers to account for
adware / spyware intrusions
Interesting moves against adware and spyware
have been reported by eWeek.com, which says that the nonprofit Center for Democracy
and Technology (CDT) wants blue-chip advertisers to join the fight against shady
practices by adware and spyware vendors.
Browser hijacking and other manipulation
of PC settings; covert installation through security vulnerabilities; hidden uninstalls;
automatic reinstallation; degrading system speed and performance; and the opening
of security backdoors that could be used for malicious attacks are all cited as
consequences of irresponsible adware activities.
As a public policy group,
CDT plans to start contacting about two dozen mainstream advertisers to discuss
their direct funding of an industry that it claims thrives on deception and borderline
illegal activity.
The campaign is the brainchild of CDT associate director
Ari Schwartz, who is also leading an effort to develop industry guidelines around
spyware definitions.
"The big money is floating between the advertisers
and the adware vendors. That's why we think the advertisers are a key part of
the puzzle," Schwartz said in an interview with Ziff Davis Internet News.
Schwartz said the CDT campaign would be used to highlight the absence of accountability
in the controversial adware sector.
Schwartz described malicious spyware
applications as "close cousins" of adware programs marketed by legitimate
adware vendors and said mainstream advertisers are unaware of the shenanigans.
"We want to see the advertisers take accountability for the places they
spend their ad dollars. We want them [the advertisers] to call on the adware companies
to clean up their acts," Schwartz added.
According to published research
by anti-spyware critic Ben Edelman, advertisers include Travelocity, Time Life
Walt Disney Classics, Virgin Mobile, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, Verizon, Chase, Ameriquest,
multiple DirecTV resellers, Pitney Bowes, Merck, multiple Viagra sellers, and
multiple online gambling sites.
Schwartz also threw his support behind
a call for the adware vendors to prove they are willing to clean up installation
practices that are being blamed on rogue distributors.
"The idea
is for them to go back to their users and ask them to 'opt in' again [to download
the adware program]. Our message to them is: If you are willing to come totally
clean, then ask your users to opt-in again."
"What we are asking
for is reasonable," Schwartz said.
Schwartz recently testified on
spyware before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where
he warned that the entire adware installation and ad-placement process was "sustained
through a nearly impenetrable web of affiliate relationships" that is used
to "deflect accountability and frustrate law enforcement."
