The Anti-Spyware Coalition, a joint association of software vendors and consumer groups, released a draft of proposed guidelines on Thursday aimed at helping consumers assess what harm may be done by programs they’ve unknowingly downloaded.
The guidelines, called a “risk model description” and available for public comment until the end of November at the ASC’s Web site, assign risk levels to various practices common to both spyware and adware, the software that marks a browser for pop-up ads and other marketing tactics.
The highest risks are linked to such spyware practices as installing software without a user’s permission, interference with other programs, intercepting e-mail and instant messages, and displaying ads without identifying the programs that generated them.
The document classifies changing a browser’s home page or search engine setting as a “medium” risk. Browser cookies and other techniques for tracking a user’s movement through Web pages are termed a “low” risk.
The guidelines are meant to serve as a point of agreement for the manufacturers of anti-spyware software based on the level of threat associated with these practices. But vendors will still have the freedom to decide whether or not their products should contend with all risky programs or only those deemed most serious.
At issue is the question of whether programs that track users and serve pop-up ads should be fought with the same vigor as programs that usurp a user’s computer or browser. Several lawsuits have already been brought by ad networks against anti-spyware makers, and more may be forthcoming.
The ASC also released an update of a document meant to define the difference between spyware and adware, which has received public comment since July. Thursday’s release was little changed from the first version. And it still places adware in the category of “spyware and other potentially unwanted technologies”—which seems to defer a resolution of the adware issue.
