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Surely its about deception?
Surely the essence of spyware is deception.

They purport to give you something for free, typically the word "free" is plastered everywhere. You install the free thing, the EULA (which nobody reads and the spyware vendor know nobody reads and count on it) says whats it does in legal terms.

I think the EU has quite a nice definition of this in their privacy rules. Paraphrased:

You can't collect more information than is needed for the primary use.
You can't keep it longer than is necessary for the primary use.
You can't send the information to anyone not essential for the primary use.
You have to be clear about what the primary use is.

I think that definition works nicely. If you spell out to someone that their screen saver is not free, it is given to them in exchange for tracking their surfing habits and sending popup adverts, then its up to them to accept it or not.
Posted by: Nigel Johnstone   Posted on: 02/08/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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LOL ... code of ethics :P  worknman | 02/08/05
Is there legit adware?  Anton Philidor | 02/08/05
Adware IS Spyware  Sunny Jalolly | 02/08/05
Seen who was already on the committee?  Anton Philidor | 02/08/05
My $.02 ....  D-Ram | 04/09/05
Message has been deleted.  realitycheck101 | 02/08/05
Once again, not the whole story....  UncleBubba | 02/08/05
Surely its about deception?  Nigel Johnstone | 02/08/05
Speaking Of Spyware...I Know You Micro$hills Will Love This....  itanalyst | 02/08/05
Computers going down  MIS Master | 02/08/05
Every IT producer thinks they need to tell  bjbrock | 02/08/05
It requires third party Trusted Build Agents (TBA)  David Mohring | 02/09/05
surely you jest...  jachamp | 02/09/05
There is nothing confusing here...  BitTwiddler | 02/09/05
ActiveX is spy ware  Nullifidian | 02/09/05
COAST's website has some disturbing statements alright....  James T. Kirk | 02/09/05
spyware  half@... | 11/23/05

What do you think?

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