Spitzer to go after spam and spyware

The subject isn't particular new, but this article at Wired is: "Spitzer Sets Sights on Spyware".

From the article:

Though Spitzer may get complaints he is attacking legitimate companies, Edelman said, the "fact is, there are lots of surprisingly big companies making serious money from these tactics. So Spitzer's intervention in users' defense is much appreciated and quite helpful."

The problem has become epidemic as people spend more time online and spyware developers get more aggressive. Some repair shops blame spyware, particularly the subset of ad-delivery programs called adware, for more than half the trouble they're seeing. One study found spyware on the computers of 80 percent of participants.

I'm all for more people hearing about this sort of thing since part of the issue is lack of education of the end user. That said, I'm fairly certain the Wired Magazine reader base isn't the big problem with those who are most likely to be clueless about spam and spyware issues.
Hopefully Spitzer can both hit some of these companies and reduce the amount out there, and also bring this into the news more often and raise awareness amongst users. Less letting them know it is out there - they seem to be aware of that - but letting them know how to stop it and why they should want to.

Posted by Eric at May 9, 2005 01:29 PM | TrackBack