Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
Blog Roll
|
Saturday, June 04, 2005
- - - - - Adware/Spyware Alert - - - - -
B-Squared, my Mad Friend From Texas, has alerted me that AdAware, among others, may be caving in to pressure from Claria and other ad-ware companies.
Claria is widely known for their pernicious ad-ware, and also for their absolutely ridiculous "license agreement" that says you can't remove their software from your PC without their permission.
I wrote about this on 11 Dec 2004, HERE.
Well, anyway, evidently LavaSoft, maker of AdAware, caved in to the pressure and deep pockets of Claria, and Claria has now been "delisted" as spyware/adware by LavaSoft. I urge you to read the whole article HERE.
Tuesday, 31 May 2005
Can you trust your spyware protection?
by Andrew Brandt, PC World
Why spyware scanner may not catch some adware programs
The next time you run a scan with your anti-spyware tool, it might miss some programs.
Several anti-spyware firms, including Aluria, Lavasoft and PestPatrol, have quietly stopped detecting adware from companies like Claria and WhenU – a process called delisting. Those adware companies have been petitioning anti-spyware firms to delist their software; other companies have resorted to sending cease-and-desist letters that threaten legal action.
In most cases it's difficult for customers to determine whether their anti-spyware tool has delisted anything and, if so, which adware it skips.
"When a spyware program gets delisted, users won't be aware of its presence," says Harvard law student and spyware researcher Ben Edelman. The practice, he says, "offers spyware makers a new lease on life, letting them keep users who otherwise would have removed their software."
|
Note that AdAware SE Personal (which I have been using) was recently up-versioned to 1.06. I have been using 1.05. However, since the detection files are the definitions of what's "bad", any update signature file may have Claria de-listed - hence Gator and it's ilk may suddenly become immune. I can still recommend SpyBot Search and Destroy, available HERE, and it's a freebie!
|
|
