Gator (oops, Claria) goes down
p2p news / p2pnet: Claria [read Gator], one of the Net’s most repulsive spyware and pop-up purveyors, says it’s had a gut-full.
It will exit the adware business by June, “following persistent criticism from online publishers, consumer groups and privacy advocates,” says the Associated Press.
Last July, Gator (oops,Claria) dumped another spyware app, Sharman Networks’ p2p Kazaa, which has itself just had a major spyware related bollocking from the new StopBadware.org group.
“In a statement, Claria said it will require any buyer of its adware assets to agree to abide by a set of standards outlined by Truste and other privacy watchdog groups,” says AP with a straight face.
Mysteriously installed
“Sorta like hiring thieves to guard the crown jewels?” – wondered Matt Bader in an email, last year, saying one of the appointees to the US Department of Homeland Security’s 20 member Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee was none other than D. Reed Freeman.
“His name may be familiar,” we wrote at the time. “If it is, but you can’t quite place it, think Gator as in the Gator Advertising Information Network which, as Bader says, is, “sadly familiar to many frustrated Web surfers who’ve been surprised to discover it mysteriously installed on their desktops serving them extra helpings of ads”.
The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee’s, “primary objective is to advise the Secretary and the Chief Privacy Officer of Department of Homeland Security on issues that affect privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and guests of the United States in DHS programs,” said Claria.
“As an appointed member, Freeman will leverage his privacy expertise to advise the DHS Secretary and Chief Privacy Officer on programmatic, policy, operations and technological issues that affect the department’s privacy, data integrity and data interoperability programs.”
Also See:
Associated Press – Adware pioneer says it will exit the business, March 21, 2006
dumped – Kazaa bites Gator, July 8, 2005
spyware related bollocking – Spyware Kazaa slammed, March 22, 2006
may be familiar – Gator boss on DoHS committee, February 25, 2006
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Computer unsavvy people create a market for all these annoyances, because it’s them who get scored on, viruses, trojan horses, spyware, adware, etc.. sneak through their often non existent defense barriers.
Turn all the population into savvy, advanced computer users, and all these advertising companies will go dawn the drain. Suddenly, they’ll only be able to capture revenue for advertising when end users so agree to, which a rough estimate says it should be less than 1% of netizens.
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:23 am
Great. How do you propose to do that? Force all net users into compulsary education camps? I’ve got a better idea. How about building better operating systems which don’t require people with better things to do, to be tech savvy in order to know what processes are running on their own computers?
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:38 am
Good reply.
As for the original author who suggested making everyone in the world tech savvy. What i think we really should do is try to keep 12 year olds such as yourself off the serious issues, as you clearly lack the capacity for logical and sound judgement.
omglolol!!!1one
March 23rd, 2006 at 2:09 am
There’s an entire cottage industry of so-called debuggers making a living off these unsavory malware pimps. Some of them have even made a franchise of it:
http://www.geeksquad.com
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:26 am
Well, of course Mr. Freeman is a perfect choice to serve on the DHS Data Privacy board! He’ll be able to advise the Government how they can surrepticiously install software on unsuspecting citizens’ computer to snoop and spy on them without dealing with pesky annoyances such as subpoenas, warrants, and judges.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 am
Yup. I’m one of them. Let’s face facts. As long as their is technology, there will be a need to fix it, (unless of course people never use it). In the computing world where a generation is now less than 3 months apart, the market is wide open and expands with every new generation.
Unfortunately, there is less than a third of the world’s populaton owns a computer and even less that are online. The internet community is beginning to clean up to make it more user friendly and um. forgive the term here, business compatible for it’s clients.
With that said, take the growing rate of new technology and the eventual boom in people who go online, it’s a veritable breeding ground for what I’ve dubbed “eCrime and eNuisances”
So to your suggestions? The answer is both. People have got to be more educated about the technology they buy and the technology itself has to become more and more worry free.
The downside to all of this is that there will be more and more inventive ways to market to the masses and again, it’s unfortunate that it’s not always the manufacturer that is responsible.
I think what we are going to see in the future, (and what we actually need to have done), is not more restrictions on affiliate programs and stricker penalties on the entities that run them. Pharmaceutical companies will have a fit with this one.
Dexter Nelson
TechDex