[privacy] ComScore Says 'Researchware' Isn't 'Spyware'

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via InformationWeek.

[snip]

ComScore chairman and co-founder Gian Fulgoni believes there's a
distinction between overt and covert data gathering. Market researchers, he
suggests, rely on "researchware," in contrast to criminal researchers who
employ "spyware."

"Market research tracking software (we have dubbed it 'researchware') needs
to be differentiated from 'adware,' 'spyware,' and 'malware' and should not
be treated in the same way as these intrusive and potentially harmful
applications," Fulgoni said in a blog post Wednesday. "We must not let the
purveyors of spyware -- the rotten apples -- give market researchers a bad
name."

Such name calling has significant implications for ComScore's business:
using "researchware" to track the actions of its 2 million-person panel of
Internet users and mining that data for salable market intelligence. As the
company warns in a third-quarter 2007 SEC filing, "Concerns over the
potential unauthorized disclosure of personal information or the
classification of our software as 'spyware' or 'adware' may cause existing
panel members to uninstall our software or may discourage potential panel
members from installing our software."

To critics, Fulgoni's attempt to separate "researchware" from "spyware"
looks like an effort to divide conjoined twins.

"ComScore goes to great lengths to tout its supposed good behaviors," said
spyware researcher Benjamin Edelman in an e-mail. "But the fact is, there's
indisputable video proof of ComScore software becoming installed without
any notice at all and without any consent at all. There's also indisputable
proof of recent installation sequences where notice was hidden, muddled, or
otherwise opaque. ComScore claims its software should be differentiated
from adware or spyware. But just like adware and spyware, ComScore's
software has a history of arriving on users' computers without users
knowing what it is or agreeing to receive it. And just like adware and
spyware, ComScore's software tracks and transmits detailed information
about users' online activities. These behaviors give users ample reason to
distrust ComScore's approach." 

[snip]

More:
http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20610
7184

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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