p2pnet - rss feed: Cydoor Lite?
p2pnet.net News :- Stung by the bad PR generated by the recent eXeem controversy, Cydoor’s owners now want it described as “mild adware”.
“Cydoor has written us an e-mail, asking us to reconsider our use of the term “spyware” to describe their product,” says dslreports.
“In their defense, the e-mail is cordial and contains no legal threats, unlike recent iDownload letters to security related websites. We include the letter in its entirety so you can judge the validity of its points.”
It kicks off, “In the past, Cydoor’s client was defined as Spyware by several members of the press and the anti-spyware industry. The client itself was mostly bundled with free software for the sole purpose of enabling that application to display ads. The client communicated with a Cydoor host periodically in order to present new ad creatives and to report on ad performance. Though no personally-identifying information was ever transferred, this method was considered invasive because users did not explicitly agree to install a Cydoor component or to the transmission of information.
“However, today Cydoor has significantly changed its technology to offer end-users and partners an unobtrusive ad-serving solution. With a greater emphasis on visibility and privacy issues, Cydoor provides its partners with a reliable source of revenue, while making sure users are aware of its activities.”
Etc, etc ……..
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See:-
eXeem controversy - eXeem dumps Cydoor, p2pnet, February 8, 2005
dslreports - Cydoor Asks us to Reconsider ‘Spyware’ Tag, March 11, 2005
March 11th, 2005 at 7:25 pm
well, I commend them on this new approach at least.
TT
March 11th, 2005 at 7:56 pm
Etc, etc ……..
???
what’s the rest of the letter? the same old BS, i’ll bet.
sorry, i will NEVER install Cydoor - or any other spyware or adware in any of my computers. and i will NEVER install exeem, either.
get stuffed, the pair of you.
March 11th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
what’s the “Lite” part? where are the descriptions of this “new” technology, and how does it differ from past versions?
this is what we want to know. we can’t attack them if we are kept in the dark
March 12th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
I was not one of the idiots lining up to browbeat the company because i had no technical specs on how it worked then and i still have no tech specs on how it works now.
I shy away from anything whose components i dont understand.. but if i get the description proposed by this letter it’s very much like the less obtrsuive “in window” banners which are innocuously present in apps like the free version of opera rather than the popup launchers, homepage hijackers, and spaminators which collectively make up gain (gator) software..
Unfortunately i can’t prove this even to myself due to a lack of thorough technical documentation and/or access to actual working code.
March 12th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
there are aspects to cydoor which are innocuous and pertaining to in-program-window banner ads which are active only when the program is open .. but there are also packages with gator-like functions which are the ugly end of the spectrum…
unfortunately the entries in the spyware database (and probably in any eulas) do not make sufficient differentiation.