This is Shane Keats from SiteAdvisor. I wanted to take a moment to respond to some of the concerns raised about our red rating of p2pnet (http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/p2pnet.net).

Let me start by saying that we work really hard to get these ratings right. We’re upfront about our methodology. (See some of our early blog entries like http://blog.siteadvisor.com/2005/12/the_down_low_on_nasty_download_1.shtml.) We admit it when we make a mistake. And we strive to be particularly careful about the gray areas.

SiteAdvisor rates p2pnet.net red for its link practices. With link analysis, we analyze outbound links and their destination sites. If sufficiently many links point to red sites, we give a red rating to the originating site. This method of analysis addresses sites that are risky not because they themselves do anything malicious, but because they pose a substantial risk of passing users on to malicious sites. Here are two blog entries that explain this in more detail:
http://blog.siteadvisor.com/2005/12/red_by_association_1.shtml
http://blog.siteadvisor.com/2006/01/the_role_of_affiliates_in_spyw.shtml

Let me be clear. P2pnet.net is obviously not an adware affiliate link farm. But P2pnet repeatedly links to sites we think are rightly rated red. For example, the current front page of P2pnet includes prominent links to (http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/warezclient.com) which has been found by others (http://p2p.malwareremoval.com/details.html#warez) to bundle LOP adware, and to blubster, discussed below. In previous tests of p2pnet, SiteAdvisor found links to other red sites including http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/freepascal.org which our tests found to result in spammy e-mail. We realize that some of these links are advertising. But we think running advertising from many red sites is also an appropriate basis to classify a site as red. Similarly, we believe that consumers should not need to be experts in which downloads bundle spyware or adware. Based on all these facts, we stand by our current rating of p2pnet.

P2pnet initially complained at length about our red ratings of its downloads. In fact, as p2pnet.net later noted, we rate almost all of p2pnet’s files green, or safe (http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/p2pnet.net/downloads/).

Lastly, a great deal is being made about our rating of blubster (http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/blubster.com). We rate blubster red because it bundles the Dealio toolbar – a program entirely unrelated to the purpose for which users seek blubster, and due to analysis from other experts at Spyware Warrior (http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/soft23a.htm) and Malware Removal (http://p2p.malwareremoval.com/details.html#blub). I can’t speak to any prior relationship between McAfee and blubster. SiteAdvisor was created in 2005, long after the events described.

Let me close with some thoughts on site ratings more generally. Site owners who wish to dispute a SiteAdvisor rating can e-mail us at complaints shift 2 siteadvisor dot com. We endeavor to acknowledge all complaints within 24 hours and to resolve them as quickly as we can. Meanwhile, sites can always use the Web Site Owner Comments link to post a public response to SiteAdvisor’s analysis.

http://p2pnet.net/story/7622