On Thursday, the Anti-Spyware Coalition will meet in Washington. Included will be experts from McAfee, Google, and the Pew Internet & American Life project to discuss the latest in spyware trends. In addition to the well-known damage caused by spyware--hawking advertising, stealing passwords, and slowing down PCs--McAfee is calling attention to a little known aspect of spyware: domestic abuse.
"Using spyware for surveillance in cases of domestic abuse is a serious matter," says Anna Stepanov, who manages the Anti-Spyware program at McAfee Avert Labs. She's written a report titled Spyware: A Morphing Campaign (in PDF), which chronicles recent spyware trends including domestic abuse. "Monitoring a victim's online, cell phone, or general computing activity is of more value than ever in controlling or hurting a victim."
The National Network to End Domestic Violence offers these computer use tips to protect against such abuse.
StopBadware.org said Tuesday it has labeled the Sears and Kmart community software known as My SHC Community as "badware," or spyware.
The nonprofit organization run by Harvard Law School, Oxford University, and Consumer Reports WebWatch said it cited the Sears Holding Corporation community in particular "because of inadequate disclosure of extensive tracking and data collection and because the application does not identify itself while running."
In response to several accusations that it collects personal information without proper disclosure, My SHC Community has dramatically revised its Web site since last week. It has, among other changes, added a prominent link to its privacy policy.
At issue is the installation of tracking software from ComScore, an online data marketing firm. ComScore has maintained over the years that its data collection methods do not qualify as spyware. However, several leading antispyware researchers disagree.
In a statement (PDF), StopBadware.org said: "Sears Holding Corporation (SHC) has informed StopBadware that SHC is significantly improving the My SHC Community application disclosure and privacy policy language and adding a Start menu icon in an effort to comply with our guidelines and address privacy concerns. They expect these changes to be implemented within 48 hours."
However, late Tuesday, StopBadware.org said it has not changed its designation of SHC Community. "We have not evaluated these planned changes at this time. SHC has also informed us that they have suspended invitations to new users to install the application until these changes are implemented."
On Thursday, security vendor Fortinet warned Facebook users that a popular new widget also installed Zango, software that has been labeled by some antivirus vendors as spyware. The Facebook widget, Secret Crush, promises to reveal who has a secret crush on them, and requires the user to add it to their site. Upon doing so, Fortinet says the Zango software also piggybacks in the installation without notification.
Previously, MySpace users were tricked into downloading video from a site called YooTube, which also attempted to install the Zango Cash program.
Zango, also known as 180Solutions and Hotbar, has had a checkered history. In 2006, Zango settled with the Federal Trade Commission, agreeing to pay $3 million dollars for illegally installing its software on user's PCs without proper notification. Recently, Zango lost its lawsuit against antivirus vendor Kaspersky. At issue was Kaspersky's claim that Zango was a threat to users.
Fortinet estimates that about 3 percent of the Facebook sites currently have the Secret Crush widget installed. For its part, Zango told WiredNews it disputes the advisory, citing that it has not detected any noticeable increase in the use of its software in recent weeks.
- prev
- 1
- next
