February 2005 • PC Matic Blog

Search Scout: No Merit Badge

PC Matic Cybersecurity / February 24, 2005

Search Scout is one of the features of the Gator Advertising Information Network (GAIN). Gator has a partnership with Overture Services to display keyword-based text ads. The GAIN background software monitors the web pages you visit and the information you enter into search forms. If GAIN determines that you are doing a web search, or you are visiting sites that are associated with particular keywords, Search Scout kicks into action and displays Overture advertising or other results that match the keywords.

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Open Letter to Thomas Cook and Oyster Partners

chengrob / February 23, 2005

February 7, 2005; updated February 23, 2005

Today I read that Thomas Cook has begun an online ad campaign that includes advertising on Claria’s GAIN ad network. I wanted to make Oyster Partners and Thomas Cook aware that there may be negative aspects to associating their brands with Claria and its GAIN network. Although Claria claims that its users have opted into the GAIN network, our own research shows that most users do not even know the software is installed on their system. A survey of users commissioned by StaySafeOnline showed similar negative feelings about products such as Claria’s. Other researchers have found that Claria/GAIN uses
misleading installation and disclosure practices.

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February 2005 Newsletter

PC Matic Cybersecurity / February 16, 2005

It Pays To Read License Agreements
How Do You Make A Top Dawg Computer?
Spyware, Adware, and Others: What’s in a Name
Thomas Cook Books with Claria
PC Pitstop’s Folding Team: Almost Fifty

February 2005 Newsletter Read More »

Inside the Top Dawg PCs

maxpc / February 16, 2005

BFG

The recent Top Dawg Challenge has been over for a while; all the prizes donated by BFG have been delivered, and preparations for the next Challenge are already underway. So what did it take to come out on top? Let’s take a look inside the machines that won each of the three prize categories: Stock, Overclocked Intel, and Overclocked AMD. We’ll get a glimpse of the builders, as well, and see if they can give us some inside tips on how to build a Top Dawg. You can see a summary table of the winning entries below.

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Google and Spyware

chengrob / February 15, 2005

On February 1, 2005, Google announced record revenues of $1.032 billion and profits of $303 million. Just like everyone else in the world, I was blown away. What a great company! The stock market seemed to agree since Google’s stock price hit a record high after their earnings announcement.

But there’s something that has been bothering me and many others in the antispyware community about the search engine juggernaut. And that’s Google’s ties to spyware.

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It Pays To Read License Agreements

chengrob / February 14, 2005

by Larry Magid

I have a deal for you. In exchange for a free piece of software that helps you keep track of your passwords and other log on information, I’m going to install other programs on your PC that will track your web surfing and display advertising that pops-up on your screen. There will also be other types of ads on your computer based on information we collect.

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The Spyware Name Game

chengrob / February 7, 2005

by Robert P. Lipschutz and John Clyman

There’s a lot of confusion about exactly what the term “spyware” means and it seems that everyone has an angle. For example, some shady software vendors prominently label their programs “spyware-free” even though in fact they may contain undesirable software hitchhikers that most of us would classify as spyware. The companies justify these claims by using an extremely narrow definition of the term “spyware” — but in our minds, these claims wouldn’t be much different than a soda manufacturer’s proclaiming that its product is “sugar-free” and justifying this statement by arguing that the corn syrup in the soda just doesn’t fall under its definition of “sugar”.

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