Spyware: The Scourage0
JR posted in Privacy, Web news on July 7th, 2006
BusinessWeek has and excellent cover story on spyware illustrated by one of its chief creators, Direct Revenue (deliberately unlinked).
I don’t think that there are words strong enough to adequately describe how hated these parasitic programs and the people who make and distribute them have become. The article starts off with the casual notation that the company received e-mail that included the word “die” 103 times, in a single month. Other less savory terms are nearly as common.
The company is presently under investigation by the New York Attorney General, but claims it cleaned up its behavior several months ago. From what the article claims, however, it may merely be a pause in the ongoing difficulty with this type of software.