(IHT) Spyware products: crossing the line

[salin]

New advances alarm privacy experts

Rick Eaton, founder of the company TrueActive, decided he had no choice. In an unusual move in the world of high technology, he made his product weaker.
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TrueActive makes a computer program that buyers can install on a target computer to monitor everything that the target computer's user does.
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Spying with software has been around for several years, but Eaton decided that one new feature in his program crossed a line between monitoring and snooping. That feature is called "silent deploy," which allows the buyer to place the program on someone else's computer secretly via e-mail, without having physical access to the machine. To Eaton, that constituted an invitation to install unethical and even illegal wiretaps.
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He removed the feature, he said, "so we could live with ourselves."

More: http://www.iht.com/articles/113203.html

[BloodyWilliam]

1. Goddamn hero.

Akin to the Israeli soldiers refusing to bomb Palestinian settlements.

On edit: Ethically, of course! It certainly doesn't carry the same moral weight, but it's still a good decision.

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

2. check out lavasoft Ad-Aware

the best anti-spyware out there.

<http://www.lavasoftusa.com/>

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Adaware 6 is free!!

Here's a direct link for the freeware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

[Evil_Dewers]

5. I love Ad-Aware...

And SpyBlaster is free, too.

[Zhade]

4. If this is accurate, kudos to Eaton.

NT!

[tsipple]

6. Reason #6782 to Run Linux

Spyware isn't the problem on Linux. Probably never will be, at least to the degree it is on Windows.

[Noordam]

8. Or Apple

same reasons.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Also, check out Spybot - Search & Destroy....it's also free...

<http://www.safer-networking.org/>

Once you click on the link above, click on the link entitled "Download" in the left-hand column.

I personally use the free versions of AdAware and Spybot...they both do a good job of updating.

[Noordam]

9. I am a chicken I use BOTH

Ad-aware and Spybot.

[Voltaire99]

10. Caution - better read the Zdnet customer reviews on Spybot

I have no direct experience of the product, but there are plenty of people saying it damaged their registry and led to them having to format and reinstall Windows:

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3302-2144_2-10194058.html?pn=2&fb=2

Ad Aware has never caused me any problems, although it did for at least one friend. The best rule of thumb before using any registry cleaning program is to back up first and proceed carefully!