| Here's my thoughts I have used Giant Antispy in conjunction with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D for the past 6 months. My impression of Giant is that it is quite thorough. Each of the products has a tendency to find a few things the others wont. From what I've read, most people see this as a good thing, as an assurance that all the junk is being found and removed. While this may be the case, I see having to run two or three or maybe four apps to find and remove all of the potential scumware as a huge problem.
That being said, it must still be made clear that Giant/MS Antispy is still prone to finding alot of false positives. This has been pointed out many times on many forum postings. I dont think that this is going to be corrected by Microsoft. I'm not one to bash Microsoft without good reason, but I'm willing to bet that this problem could actually get worse. In fact, this has potentially already started happening with the removal of the signature files for Minibug. I find this to be very problematic because the company behind Weatherbug probably has enough money to either convince MS to remove the signature files or to pay lawyers to carry on a long term lawsuit. On the other side of the coin, there's the Messenger Plus! plugin. A very high quality and useful program, in my opinion. While both programs come with the ability to opt out of the installation (with the newer releases of Weatherbug), I'd guess that Patchou may not have access to the same kind of cash resources Weatherbug would. Not to mention that, in my opinion, he's kind of trapped. I'm sure if he sued Microsoft over this issue, they would simply change MSN Messenger to prevent his program from functioning.
This is just one example. Are there more like this? It remains to be seen. Microsoft needs to make sure not to bow down to these companies otherwise before their app loses all credibility. Weatherbug is by far nowhere near the worst of the spyware/adware/malware junk that is infesting the Internet these days, but Microsoft still cannot let this set a precedent. I'd guess we are all sure when Claria/Gator or WhenU see this, they will be clamoring, begging, and pleading for the same treatment.
What we need to be pushing for is more antispyware applications that are similar in function to antivirus software. Proactive and reactive protection. Giant/MS Antispy, Spybot & Spysweeper are about the closest we've come to that. In closing here's what I feel is needed to resolve this issue:
•Antispyware software vendors _must_ not legitimize these applications based on the application maker's flimsy 'justifications'.
•The average user needs to be willing to learn so we can educate them on how to avoid the plague of spyware.
•Legislation is neccessary that makes software vendors clearly detail everything that a program is doing during an installation. (Apps like Weatherbug and Msgplus! have gone a long way toward getting there by detailing what else is being added and giving users the ability to opt out of it.)
//* Fullcirclepheonix *// |
