Spyware, Adware and Security, Among Other Things

More and more journalists, academic studies and consultants are pronouncing that Internet users are increasingly wary of "spyware" and "adware". These studies also reveal consumers are more than a little fuzzy on what the terms mean. The confusion is not helped by the fact that the terms can sometimes be used interchangeably in perfect propriety. The experts argue endlessly about the definition in conventions of academics and corporate boohoos.

The general population of Internet users may not know exactly what it is, but they know they don't like it. Their machines slow to a crawl, they are forced to click through ads to do their work or pursue their pleasures, sometimes seemingly endlessly. They worry about trojan horse programs stealing their personal data and making theft of their identity possible.

Businesses of every size now see spyware and adware, no matter the definitions, as a major problem. And trojan horses have been discovered in Isreal custom designed to facilitate industrial espionage. It must be pointed out that this incident did not involve files obtained from the Internet. Instead, they were spread on physical media using some fairly simple social engineering. But the lesson is clear: The machines we use in so much of our life threaten to do us harm at the hands of others.

Recently, I read where an officer of a company which distributes adware said consumers have to be educated on the difference between adware and spyware and other malicious programs. What I took from that told me he thought that if consumers were so educated, they would tolerate adware much more readily.

I have news for him; Computer use is often an intensely personal experience and the majority of people resent ANY intrusion into it. Don't believe me? Look at the proliferation of ad and popup blockers. Only the most technically inept are not aware of their availability and, in my personal experience (which may or may not be typical) adding them to the machine is THE most often requested software upgrade.

We don't just dislike popup ads. We resent them deeply. Hate is probably not too strong a term for the way we feel. The same goes for those animated Flash presentations you insist on putting in the middle of texts we want to read. I will read and occasionally react to a tastefully placed advertisement. It's not as if I think advertising is bad. I do not. I just don't wish to be forced to deal with it, have it detract from my surfing experience or leave anything on my machine, no matter what it is. I have yet to find anyone who disagrees with me on this, though I admit I haven't asked anyone I know in the online advertising trade.

There are issues of who gets to control whose computer, as well. But the vast majority of users aren't really aware of these. They just want to be able to view the content they choose without wading through layers of ads.

CNet's News.com is reporting adware companies are trying to clean up their act and image. The driving force in this is the specter of federal legislation and nothing I've found signals anything like a moral re-awakening on the part of the adware folks. They're just afraid of possible legal consequences. In cases where companies have actually posted accurate details in licenses and made uninstallation of the adware easy, their penetration (in number of installations) has gone 'way down. There is a lesson in this, but no one I know expects these companies to hear it.

Jack