Thursday, July 14, 2005
Is It Spyware or Adware?
Slip a prerecorded DVD into your computer, and this software program quietly goes online to report what you're watching, like an alien contacting its mother ship. Is it spyware? Not necessarily. The "mother ship," in this case, is Microsoft. The software is the Windows Media Player. To some privacy advocates, the Microsoft program behaves in certain ways like spyware, which illustrates a basic problem: It's tough to fight something when you have trouble simply identifying it. Critics say the spyware label can apply to any secretive software that does something on your computer without your knowledge and for somebody else's purposes.
There is no debate that it refers to plainly malicious programs that spy on your e-mail, hijack your modem or steal account numbers.
But when the risks are less obvious -- say, with an adware program that tracks your Web surfing to deliver targeted pop-up ads -- consensus has been harder to come by. Critics say that adware, like spyware, is often downloaded by mistake or through deception -- sometimes by clicking on a "Security Warning" that wrongly implies a program is needed to continue viewing a Web site, or occasionally by just visiting a site. Adware can quietly collect data about users' online habits. It can cause computers to become painfully slow or crash. And it can be difficult to remove.
Adware-makers counter that they use technology to deliver a smarter form of advertising that consumers willingly accept, because they want the games or entertainment offered in exchange, or simply welcome the ads and special offers. Stuck in the middle are people such as Kevin Charnigo of Doylestown, Pa. He never knowingly accepted any of the programs clogging his 3-year-old computer, but it became so jammed with unwanted software that he was ready to toss it out. Even with a high-speed connection, he could barely get e-mail or surf the Web. "I would turn the computer on and I'd start seeing pop-ups before I even logged on to the Internet," said Charnigo, regional pharmacy supervisor for CVS.
While Charnigo does not distinguish spyware from adware, or one piece of adware from another, leading adware-makers insist such distinctions are crucial. And their efforts are paying off.
Partly at their urging, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an anti-spyware bill in May that leaves adware alone if it is accepted voluntarily by computer users -- in return, say, for a downloaded game or screen saver -- and if it steers clear of features that are specifically prohibited, such as being difficult to remove.
Adware-makers also have pressed companies that make spyware-removal programs to quit labeling their programs as risky or even mentioning them at all. Symantec's new Norton Internet Security AntiSpyware Edition labels some adware "low risk" and recommends that users leave it alone. Kraig Lane, Symantec's product manager, said that as Symantec looked past programs that were hijacking computers or stealing personal data , it realized it was dealing with a different kind of threat. "People are used to antivirus programs where everything is black and white. Spyware and adware fall more into a gray area," Lane said. Some privacy advocates say spyware and adware are the latest examples of a commercial intrusion into personal computers that began with "cookies" -- small files that advertisers and Web sites place on personal computers to track a surfer's behavior.
Chis Hoofnagle, West Coast director for the Electronic Privacy Information Center , puts Windows Media Player in that same category. Microsoft says the online-reporting feature provides users with information about the DVDs they watch, collects no personal information , and can be disabled. Even so, Hoofnagle said, each program comes with a unique serial number. "By installing Windows Media Player, you've basically tagged your computer," he said.
Microsoft recently raised its profile in the spyware wars by offering computer users a beta-test version of an anti-spyware program developed by a company it acquired. Michael Serdikoff, a Wyncote, Pa., computer consultant who says spyware and adware remain the largest problem he faces, is one of many who see irony in the software giant's new role. Not that Microsoft is wrong to target spyware, he said. But he and others blame Microsoft for much of the problem, which they say was fueled by security holes in its software. Even so, Serdikoff cuts Microsoft a break.
"When they designed it, this stuff wasn't even out there," he said. "Nobody was forward-thinking enough."
Brought to you by Guardian eCommerce.
There is no debate that it refers to plainly malicious programs that spy on your e-mail, hijack your modem or steal account numbers.
But when the risks are less obvious -- say, with an adware program that tracks your Web surfing to deliver targeted pop-up ads -- consensus has been harder to come by. Critics say that adware, like spyware, is often downloaded by mistake or through deception -- sometimes by clicking on a "Security Warning" that wrongly implies a program is needed to continue viewing a Web site, or occasionally by just visiting a site. Adware can quietly collect data about users' online habits. It can cause computers to become painfully slow or crash. And it can be difficult to remove.
Adware-makers counter that they use technology to deliver a smarter form of advertising that consumers willingly accept, because they want the games or entertainment offered in exchange, or simply welcome the ads and special offers. Stuck in the middle are people such as Kevin Charnigo of Doylestown, Pa. He never knowingly accepted any of the programs clogging his 3-year-old computer, but it became so jammed with unwanted software that he was ready to toss it out. Even with a high-speed connection, he could barely get e-mail or surf the Web. "I would turn the computer on and I'd start seeing pop-ups before I even logged on to the Internet," said Charnigo, regional pharmacy supervisor for CVS.
While Charnigo does not distinguish spyware from adware, or one piece of adware from another, leading adware-makers insist such distinctions are crucial. And their efforts are paying off.
Partly at their urging, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an anti-spyware bill in May that leaves adware alone if it is accepted voluntarily by computer users -- in return, say, for a downloaded game or screen saver -- and if it steers clear of features that are specifically prohibited, such as being difficult to remove.
Adware-makers also have pressed companies that make spyware-removal programs to quit labeling their programs as risky or even mentioning them at all. Symantec's new Norton Internet Security AntiSpyware Edition labels some adware "low risk" and recommends that users leave it alone. Kraig Lane, Symantec's product manager, said that as Symantec looked past programs that were hijacking computers or stealing personal data , it realized it was dealing with a different kind of threat. "People are used to antivirus programs where everything is black and white. Spyware and adware fall more into a gray area," Lane said. Some privacy advocates say spyware and adware are the latest examples of a commercial intrusion into personal computers that began with "cookies" -- small files that advertisers and Web sites place on personal computers to track a surfer's behavior.
Chis Hoofnagle, West Coast director for the Electronic Privacy Information Center , puts Windows Media Player in that same category. Microsoft says the online-reporting feature provides users with information about the DVDs they watch, collects no personal information , and can be disabled. Even so, Hoofnagle said, each program comes with a unique serial number. "By installing Windows Media Player, you've basically tagged your computer," he said.
Microsoft recently raised its profile in the spyware wars by offering computer users a beta-test version of an anti-spyware program developed by a company it acquired. Michael Serdikoff, a Wyncote, Pa., computer consultant who says spyware and adware remain the largest problem he faces, is one of many who see irony in the software giant's new role. Not that Microsoft is wrong to target spyware, he said. But he and others blame Microsoft for much of the problem, which they say was fueled by security holes in its software. Even so, Serdikoff cuts Microsoft a break.
"When they designed it, this stuff wasn't even out there," he said. "Nobody was forward-thinking enough."
Brought to you by Guardian eCommerce.
