Source: Yahoo! News
Written By: Lisa Gill
Last spring, the public got a firsthand look at spyware’s pervasiveness when it was discovered that peer-to-peer file-swapping app Kazaa was bundling a program designed to form a giant distributed network — composed of Kazaa users’ computers — that could transmit information back to Brilliant Digital Entertainment, the company that created it. In effect, this network would use people’s computers to perform work for Brilliant Digital.
The program had been distributed with Kazaa since the fall of 2001, according to a document that Brilliant filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April.
Even though Brilliant said it would not “flip the switch” to turn on the distributed network without gaining user permission, Internet privacy advocates were outraged. Because Brilliant had installed its software on users’ computers in a seemingly underhanded way — notification of the program’s inclusion was buried in Kazaa’s user licensing agreement — Kazaa assumed a permanent spot on routinely posted lists of spyware applications.
But many users seem blissfully unaware of spyware’s reach. Kazaa Media Player was the number one PC download last week at Download.com and has topped the charts for the last 33 weeks. This week alone, the program exceeded 2.8 million downloads.
Can PC spies be stopped?
Spyware Risin
Without a doubt, use of software that monitors Internet activity without a user’s knowledge is on the rise, according to Yankee Group security analyst Eric Ogren. Besides spyware embedded in downloadable apps, the number of active Web pages, which can transmit information about users to companies running ads on a page, also has increased, Ogren told NewsFactor.
Spyware monitoring groups, such as SpywareInfo, Counterexploitation and Spy Check, condemn the practice. Specifically, they name Adware, Alexa, Aureate, Cydoor, DSSAgent, EverAd, OnFlow, Gator and Webhancer as the guilty parties.
The most pervasive use of spyware appears to be in P2P file-sharing apps, particularly — and now unsurprisingly — Kazaa.
“In Kazaa there is at least one program, Cydoor, that you cannot opt out of, and if you remove that, Kazaa stops working until you reinstall it,” Mike Healan, operator of the SpywareInfo Web site, told NewsFactor.
The watchdog groups also list file-sharing programs Bearshare, Imesh and Limewire as purveyors of spying technology.
Still Popular
So far, complaints about spyware do not seem to have affected Kazaa’s popularity to a significant degree. But for the privacy-conscious, a program called Kazaa Lite provides most of the functionality of Kazaa, including access to the Kazaa file-sharing network — without the spyware.
And consumers are not completely unconcerned about privacy. As the number of spyware-laden programs has increased, spyware blockers also have become surefire hits. ZoneLabs’ ZoneAlarm is a free, consumer-level personal firewall that, among other things, notifies a user when a program is trying to send data over the Internet, then asks for the user’s permission, according to ZoneLabs spokesperson Te Smith.
Smith told NewsFactor that the Kazaa-Brilliant Digital incident remains “the poster child for spyware. People still are downloading it. It speaks to the need to educate users. You have to be aware of what you’re doing.”
Smith said ZoneLabs has more than 20 million users of its free and paid security software.
Another popular spyware blocker is Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware, which scans a system for ad-supported software components and removes them. The company offers a free version, plus enhanced tools for a price. The software logged 170,000 downloads at Download.com last week.
Blurry Lines
Companies that distribute advertising-support software, or adware, claim that because they garner customers’ permission to handle their personal data, their software cannot be classed as malicious spyware.
SpywareInfo’s Healen acknowledged that users can opt out of some adware. However, he added, “A lot of it could be considered spyware because it logs things like browsing history [and] computing habits and sends it back to the vendor.”
Even when usage and license agreements are presented, Healen said, they are often so full of legalese that it is difficult to discern how a company will use a person’s information.
Uninformed Users
Although users are concerned about how their private information is handled — a recent Media Metrix survey found that nearly 70 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about their privacy online — the same survey found that just 40 percent of users read privacy statements. In addition, just 30 percent of respondents said they find Web site privacy statements easy to understand.
Clearly, anti-spyware companies — and users — have their work cut out for them.
Related Posts
- Can you trust Brilliant? I don’t. Here’s why
- Stealth P2P Network Hides Inside Kazaa
- Altnet says P2P spies violate patent rights
- LimeWire research uncovers unwanted Spyware in P2P
- What Spies Beneath
Loading ...
