| They are Malware in my book I'd term Adware as an application that displays ads and tells the user up front that it will do so. It must not install itself via any nefarious means (e.g. drive-by downloads) and must provide an easy and effective uninstall utility. Using this definition, an example of Adware would be Opera's free ad-supported version. (Note that this definition means that Adware wouldn't be a bad thing because it would be something you would *choose* to have on your computer.)
My personal definition of spyware is an application that, without clearly informing the user, sends personal information about the user (including browsing habits) to a master server. Spyware may also be installed via nefarious means and may not provide a clear means of uninstalling it.
Malware (to continue my personal definitions), is an application that installs itself via nefarious means, takes active measures to prevent it's removal from the system, and/or makes changes to the system settings (including, but not limited to home page and search preferences) without properly informing the user.
Now iSearch (according to Symantec's write-up), "is a search hijacker and also tracks user activity on a remote server at isearch.com." If all they did was track user activity to display ads, then they *might* be able to argue themselves into the Adware category. Provided that they informed users properly and don't install their application via nefarious means, of course.
But they don't do either. iSearch can be installed via nefarious means (drive-by download) and thus won't properly inform the user of the actions that it will take (phoning home). This alone puts them into the Spyware category in my book. But then they go and hijack the user's search preferences. That pushes them over into my definition of Malware.
Now, they may sue me for saying this, but this is my own personal opinion and last I checked we were still allowed to have our own opinions.
--
-Jason Levine
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/
http://www.PCQandA.com/
http://www.urateit.com/ |
