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.: Adware/Spyware Vendor Sued Over 'Invasive' Software - 29th Apr 2005
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"New York State has gone on the attack against spyware and adware by filing a lawsuit against a Los Angeles-based marketing company that allegedly installed "invasive" software onto consumers' computers without proper notice as part of free software downloads.
In an announcement today, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said he had filed the lawsuit against Intermix Media, a 6-year-old Internet marketing company. "Spyware and adware are more than an annoyance," Spitzer said in the statement. "These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity, and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers. These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce..."
[PCWorld] |
.: The Sad State of Spyware - 25th Apr 2005
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"There's reason to be optimistic about many security problems, but others are less encouraging. One of the worst is the problem of spyware and adware, which, in the year since the FTC held a workshop on it, has metastasized badly. Use of misleading and illegal techniques has mushroomed in the last year, but the FTC has brought action in only two cases, neither of them involving actual adware or spyware vendors.
The two cases instead involve shady anti-spyware vendors, certainly worth pursuing, but only a side-effect of the real problem. Actually, the extent of this side-effect is indicative of just how bad things have become: Howes' Rogue Anti-Spyware List began about a year ago and has grown to almost 200 phony and hypocritical products..."
[eWeek] |
.: ID theft: Not 'if,' but 'when' - 25th Apr 2005
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"Many people learned a lesson the hard way recently: Big Brother barely has his eyes open when it comes to the data brokers that gather personal information on millions of Americans.
Which means, security and consumer experts warn, that unless states and Congress institute tough laws, all the paper-shredding in the world will not protect an increasing number of people from falling victim to identity theft.
"It's not a matter of if identity theft is going to happen to you, but when it's going to happen to you," said California attorney Mari Frank, who has written two books on the subject after becoming a victim herself. Warnings have been widespread about taking precautions such as destroying bank statements to prevent personal information from being stolen. But the notable disclosures of personal information recently have nothing to do with individual behavior. Instead, actions by or lack of security from data collectors have emerged as the latest primary concerns..."
[ToledoBlade] |
.: Goodbye To Privacy - 25th Apr 2005
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"YOUR mother's maiden name is not the secret you think it is. That sort of 'personal identifier' being used by banks, credit agencies, doctors, insurers and retailers -- supposedly to protect you against the theft of your identity -- can be found out in a flash from a member of the new security-industrial complex. There goes the 'personal identifier' that you presume a stranger would not know, along with your Social Security number and soon your face and DNA.
In the past five years, what most of us only recently thought of as ''nobody's business'' has become the big business of everybody's business. Perhaps you are one of the 30 million Americans who pay for what you think is an unlisted telephone number to protect your privacy. But when you order an item using an 800 number, your own number may become fair game for any retailer who subscribes to one of the booming corporate data-collection services. In turn, those services may be -- and some have been -- penetrated by identity thieves..."
[NYTimes] |
.: In Digital World, Privacy Is Being Eroded For Commercial Gain - 25th Apr 2005
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"Like many chatty, on-the-go college students, Tara Hasselbarth, 20, loves her cell phone and uses it constantly. She also is big on e- mailing pals and surfing the Net for research and shopping.
Like many tech-savvy young people, however, the University of Tampa student has an inkling there could be a dark side to these and other convenient high-tech services that are webbed to the daily regimen of many Americans..."
[Tampa Tribune] |
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