Yahoo's Famed Anti-Spyware App Allows Spyware From Partners

from the how-nice dept

We didn't write about Yahoo's new "anti-spyware" toolbar that they announced last week, because it seemed to receive plenty of hype, and there were no real reviews of how it worked. There are so many so-called anti-spyware applications out there that don't actually stop spyware and adware for fear of upsetting marketing companies or out of worries that actually stopping spyware may make some applications stop working (upsetting the user), that we figured Yahoo's anti-spyware app (hype and all) probably wouldn't be much to bother with. It certainly looks like that may be the case. eWeek is now reporting that Yahoo tries to dance the careful dance of not upsetting certain companies who threaten to sue people who call their application spyware. Of course, the situation is even more complex because Claria (who you probably know as Gator - despite their attempt to change their name to shake that spyware label) is also a partner of Yahoo. So, it's really not surprising that the default setting for Yahoo's anti-spyware app won't actually remove services like Gator or WhenU. Instead, Yahoo's spyware remover claims these programs are "adware" and will only remove them if you click and extra check box each time you run the program. In other words, once again, you can't trust a provider of anti-spyware software, because they're playing both sides of the fence: partnering with providers on the one hand, and then offering weak removal products on the other. If Yahoo were serious about removing spyware from the computers of users they would refuse to partner with companies that used surreptitious tactics to be installed on computers. Instead, they want to look good to users in the front, while letting in spyware/adware from partners through the backdoor.