Can You Trust Your Spyware Protection?

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."

Of course, some spyware apps are worse than others. One spyware program may make severe changes to your computer's settings, while another merely displays ads.

Claria and WhenU are making the case that their adware programs don't resort to illegal tactics, such as exploiting security holes, to install themselves. And though this software can be annoying, adware developers argue that merely being listed in an anti-spyware scanner's database tarnishes a company's reputation by linking its relatively benign adware application with far more harmful and intrusive spyware programs.

According to Avi Naider of WhenU, though some other adware companies will track your Web meanderings and sell that data, WhenU's privacy policy doesn't permit it to track the search queries that users type or the Web pages that they browse.

Each anti-spyware firm uses its own set of criteria to decide whether to remove or detect a file or Registry key related to spyware. Usually even a few bad behaviors suffice to red-tag a file as spyware or adware.

Peter Mackow of PCTools, maker of the Spyware Doctor anti-spyware program, says that his company won't publish the entire list of its criteria for fear that spyware companies will use the information to design a spyware application that skirts every rule. That is a position shared by many others who fight spyware.

"The spyware guys want a really rigid set of rules defining spyware so they can then make an end run around [all of them]," says Eric L. Howes, who tracks the spyware business for Spywarewarrior.com and consults for anti-spyware software companies.

Experts recommend that you employ two--or even three--anti-spyware tools. The more you use, the likelier they are to counter the individual biases of each anti-spyware company.

It's unfair to permanently blacklist a company based on its past behavior, so some delisting is inevitable. But delisting an adware application is a dangerous proposition for anti-spyware developers. In the past, some spyware and adware makers have changed their software enough to get delisted only to resume the activity that got them flagged in the first place.

As a result, the anti-spyware industry has developed a thick skin. Delisting is rare because, Edelman says, anti-spyware firms "stand up to strongly worded demand letters."

Adware companies also decry the word spyware itself as inherently negative, so some anti-spyware firms have tried to create terms that mean essentially the same thing, using more-neutral language: grayware, potentially unwanted programs, or potentially unwanted software. But Webroot's CEO David Moll argues that matters could get more confusing if the anti-spyware companies try to refer to spyware by other names, just when many people are beginning to understand what spyware can do.

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The best forum for malware removal:

-SWI Forums-

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315720/posts

Microsoft Releases Anti-Spyware Beta 1 To Public Today.
Microsoft.com ^

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Browser Wars, take two
various FR links | 12-22-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1306815/posts

...and let your compiler of links drop out of Lurk & Link mode for comment and advice:

Ditch IE. Honest to God, almost anything else will give you fewer problems. Try and compare- use IE, then run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy... then try another browser and repeat. You will be stunned at the garbage IE attracts.

Keep your OS updated & patched.

Run a hardware firewall-- with today's LAN's, it's easy. You need a hardware firewall.

WEATHERBUG IS NOT SPYWARE NOR ADWARE.... Facts are simple, facts are true, facts don't do what I want them to.(From a Talking Heads song) With apologies to those of you who really have it out for WeatherBug, like "rdb3", the good news is it's a free country and yes, there are other weather apps out there you can use for weather data-but whether you love our product or hate our product, the fact is simply that WeatherBug is not and has never been spyware. For the record, spyware tracks web surfing activity and sometimes reads what is on the user’s hard drive. WeatherBug is not capable of tracking your overall web use or deciphering anything on your hard drive. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE MAJOR SPYWARE DETECTOR AMONG THE TOP 30 THAT CALLS US SPYWARE- BECAUSE I TEST THEM EVERY SINGLE THURSDAY- AND BECAUSE WE'RE NOT SPYWARE. Spbyot, Adaware, Norton (which in the interest of full disclosure does call us adware- more on that in a second), McAfee, Pest Patrol, Aluria, Microsoft Antispy (beta), Spykiller, Spybloc, SpyHunter, Spysweeper, SpyDoctor, Zerospy, Counterspy, AVG Antivirus, A-Squared, Pc-Cillin- and I could go on....not a single one calls us spyware. so let's consider that point closed unless somehow every one of those programs, and 25 more I could list, all are 100% wrong. Adware- now that's trickier b/c some of you define adware as "anything with ads"- well by that definition, AIM, Yahoo messenger, realplayer, weather channel's application, accuweather, hotmail, etc. could all be considered adware, as would our free product (we have an ad-free version for $19.95 a year). However, with the exception of Norton, most companies don't define adware that broadly (and when we asked Norton why they didn't list AIM as adware they stumbled, hemmed and hawed and admitted they didn't have a good answer. Expect to see us removed from Norton's list soon- hopefully by end of June or early July 2005). if all these companies flagged AIM, Yahoo messenger, etc. as "adware threats"- how long before everyone would stop trusting ANYTHING they listed- it would be a 'boy who cried wolf syndrome" and REAL adware would get ignored. People would stop believing anything that pulled up if AIM was always getting flagged as "adware". MOST IT profs. (including hundreds that I met at NetWorld/Interop- the largest US IT show), feel that adware is best defined as "programs that serve ads (often pop ups) based on user surfing habits." 1) WeatherBug serves no pops in the version we released last year- June 2004 2) WeatherBug has never served ads based on user surfing habits- we have a proprietary system that allows users to SELECT a sponsor from about 10 different categories. 3) the 2nd definition of adware - based on USER SURFING HABITS is exactly what WHENU and GATOR do- and that folks, is what adware is all about. I surf to Expedia to book a flight and WHAM!! I get hit with an annoying pop ad for priceline.com asking me to put a bid on a flight at their site. I DIDN'T WANT PRICELINE. If I did, I'd have gone there. THAT IS ADWARE. here are the facts- WeatherBug owns and operates the world’s largest network of weather stations and is one of the top 10 Internet properties in daily reach according to Media Metrix. Our data is: - viewed by over 80 million households a month, both on-line and off-line - accessible to The Department of Homeland Security for live, real-time plume modeling and weather data, in the event of an attack on our country, and our weather stations are at 15 Coast Guard bases, the US Naval Academy, Quantico Marine Base and USAF Academy - used by dozens of city, county and state emergency managers in assessing the impact of current weather conditions on hazardous situations and natural disasters, - in 8,000 schools and universities across the US, helping teach math and science along with our WeatherBug curriculum which won a Smithsonian Laureate and was selected by Media & Methods Magazine as 2002’s “Education Technology of the Year,” and chosen by District Administration Magazine as a Top 100 product (2003); - used by meteorologists at over 100 TV stations to bring “neighborhood” weather forecasts and conditions to communities every day. You may not like us and if you don't, by all means, d/l another weather app. Yes, you'll be getting weather from an airport that could be far away and only updates once an hour, instead of live, local weather. But maybe for you that's good enough. For 8000 schools, the US military and dozens of major corporations, they need live, LOCAL weather which is why they come to us. But if you use someone else's program or not, all I ask is that you get the facts right about us. As for rb3's comment that I surf the web all day- 1) it's folks like him who don't actually check the facts and spout off ridiculous rumors in between game of Rainbow 6 with their headsets on too tightly that make it necessary to spend ANY time rebutting this stuff and 2) it's part of my job to correct misimpressions about our company, because that is what good companies do- they rebut rumors, lies, and innuendos about them.....a radical concept I admit, but we kinda like it. Unlike rb3, I'll post my contact info if anyone actually wants to write to me- jay@weatherbug.com or Jay Hoffman, customer support manager 12410 Milestone Center Drive #300, Germantown, MD 20876

Goody gumdrops - you can cut and paste! Nice text wall! How about some hard returns or other basic formatting? If Weatherbug is so terrific as you claim - why not ask some of your crack programming staff for some help in posting?

Why are you and your company so paranoid about WeatherBug's image? Could it be a guilty conscience? Is it possible that the technical support nightmares, system slowdowns and generally unclean uninstall routine(s) have something to do with it, along with your annoying unrequested browser launches when the uninstall is run? What about the cloying, 'Weatherbug is great, why are you removing it?' BS? Does Microsoft, Lotus/IBM, Adobe et al ask for this information? Is it any of their business or yours?

Many of us have done the Google research on you, your company and have seen your photo and many of your (no longer) private e-mails. We know your methods and your cynical, clock-punching view of your job and duties. You may think you're fighting the good fight, but the informed among us will never be fooled. Guess what? We don't have to rely on rumors, lies, or innuendo. We have seen the aftermath of cute, little, good ol' WeatherBug on too many systems and it's not pretty.

Being a good company man and infesting as many web forums as you can find with your holier-than-thou BS means absolutely nothing. It's like Colonel Sanders saying KFC is good - completely meaningless and without credibility. Mentioning AOL et al hardly elevates you to a place among the angels - AIM has its own problems, as do many other shareware/freeware titles. However, their relatively clean troubleshooting and removal procedures further expose WeatherBug as the worst of a bad lot.

Whining and/or bullying the spyware scanner companies into leaving WeatherBug off their respective blacklists is a fool's errand. These companies fear lawsuits and other harrassment from entities who will no doubt claim 'damages' from being blacklisted. At the end of the day, it's of little consequence to them who's listed and who's not, and they certainly won't risk financial exposure when they can omit one mouse that roars.

Since you're so altruistically committed to the free flow of accurate information, how about we follow you around the net and inform users how to combat WeatherBug's ads with host file and firewall settings? After all, your main concern is helping schools and the military find out about the weather, right?

Please post links or information that confirm your ownership and operation of weather stations - numbers, locations, equipment lists, etc. It's hard to imagine the untold millions that the US and world governments have spent on weather data collection in the last 100-200 years - would you have us believe that an ADWARE COMPANY has expended the same amount of money in just a few short years? Even the Weather Channel relies on observations from NOAA et al - it would be a waste of money to build 100% redundant facilities. Did you personally help set up the anemometers and hygrometers? It would make a cat laugh.

By the way, you're identifying/responding to the wrong poster and your attempt at invoking a humorous stereotype is as factually incorrect as your FUD, name-dropping, 'awards' and statistics are meaningless.

Thanks for taking the bait and stopping by to join Freep to post your boilerplate, but my customers, associates and friends have already concluded that WeatherBug is to be avoided at all costs.

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