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June 25, 2005

AP Story on Defining Spyware/Adware

As a follow-up to yesterday's story on advertiser liability for adware, today the AP runs a story about the definitional ambiguities of the words "spyware" and "adware," and the problems those ambiguities create. I think this quote sums it up best:

"`Spyware' has sort of become the euphemism for any software I don't want," said Wayne Porter, co-founder of SpywareGuide.com.

The result is chaos.

As the article points out, the characterization has important consequences for consumer behavior. The story gives some illustrations of how spyware/adware label is just another type of ambiguous metadata that can lead to mistakes in judgment.

There's plenty of other good tidbits in this article. Recommended reading.

Posted by Eric at June 25, 2005 12:44 PM | Adware/Spyware