Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy Adware Developer

Discussion in 'privacy general' started by ronjor, Jun 30, 2005.

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  1. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    Story
     
  2. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    FYI,
    The Homeland Security Department (DHS) announced the appointments of 20 members to the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee that will advise the department's secretary and chief privacy officer on issues that affect privacy, data integrity, and data interoperability.
    http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2005/0221/web-dhsprivacy-02-23-05.asp

    and Claria is one of these 20 members.
    Quoting "D. Reed Freeman, chief privacy officer and vice president for Claria Corporation in Arlington, Va."

    Is that logical ?
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2005
  3. polyglory

    polyglory Registered Member

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    Buyer beware and In my view to be very careful, a gut feeling in my case.

    My feelings, may defy logic, but they have not let me down yet in over forty years. :eek:
     
  4. tuatara

    tuatara Registered Member

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    What is the problem exactly ?

    MS just needs more workers, and prefer workers that already have knowledge of their business,
    and can start working directly without giving them in-house training..

    :D

    FWTDK: http://xp-antispy.org/content/view/17/45/






    :D
     
  5. Infinity

    Infinity Registered Member

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    It certainly doesn't sound logic to me :eek: ...


    service pack 3 will have an extra shopping toolbar maybe :D
     
  6. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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  7. tuatara

    tuatara Registered Member

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    This is what were are saying for 20 years now...


    It is hard to believe that with all the Trojans, Virusses,spyware,adware,
    dailers,firewall problems etc. etc of the MS OS,
    that there are still people out there that don't know this.

    And is there 1 person out there who worked with several OS-es that
    don't believe this, or see this in a other way?

    Now Security Software is hot news, so Microsoft,
    will take actions .... from a marketing point of view ...of course..

    ;)
     
  8. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    Of course buying Claria could be a smoke-screen for something much bigger.

    Two facts :
    1. Claria is one of the members of the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee and that committee is close to The Homeland Security Department (DHS).
    2. Bill Gates wants to buy Claria for marketing reasons, but that is just a fake reason.

    What could happen :
    1. If Bill Gates buys Claria, he will become a member of the above mentioned committee.
    2. Once Bill Gator is a member of that committee, he will be very close to DHS.
    3. And from DHS to the White House is just a small step.

    Conclusion :
    I think Bill Gator wants to be the next President of the United States and he has the money to finance his campaign.

    Is that a possibility ? :D :D :D
     
  9. tuatara

    tuatara Registered Member

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    Is Bill Gator a brother of 'ALI' G... ?

    :D :D :D
     
  10. hayc59

    hayc59 Guest

    MS Downgrades Claria Detections by Eric L. Howes

    Hi All:
    Several sources have now confirmed that Microsoft downgraded its detections of Claria's adware products in the latest update (#5731) to Microsoft AntiSpyware released today. Where Microsoft AntiSpyware used to detect Claria's products and present users with a "Recommended Action" of "Quarantine," following today's update Microsoft AntiSpyware now presents users with a "Recommended Action" of "Ignore" (see attached screenshot). Users can still change the action to "Quarantine" or "Remove."

    While Claria's products have not been removed from the Microsoft AntiSpyware definitions, this change is troubling, coming so close on the heels of the revelation that Microsoft has been in talks with Claria to acquire the company:

    Is Microsoft about to buy Claria/Gator o_O

    Credit goes to Donna of "Calendar of Updates"
    http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?showtopic=5570
    Ben Edelman and Suzi of Spyware Warrior for testing and confirming this find.
    http://www.benedelman.org/news/063005-1.html

    Best,
    Eric L. Howes

    Note: as discussed later in this thread, it now appears that the Claria detections were "downgraded" much earlier than the 7/1 update (#5731) -- at the very least by 6/2 (#5723).

    Edit: Full Disclosure - since Nov. of 2004 I have performed consulting work for Sunbelt Software, the makers of the CounterSpy anti-spyware application. In Jan. 2004 I was awarded the Microsoft Most Valued Professional Award (MVP) for my work on privacy and security issues.

    *For new or updated info please check back to original peice
    of Info-->
    http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13793423

    MS Downgrades Claria Detections
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 2, 2005
  11. tuatara

    tuatara Registered Member

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    LOL , ROTF !

    This is once again, something the MS fans will not believe ...

    :D
     
  12. sam42

    sam42 Guest

    be very afraid of what MICROSOFT is upto, imagine <snip> = freedom deado_Oo_Oo_O

    edited to remove political commentary - we don't discuss politics here at Wilders - Detox
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 2, 2005
  13. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    Well, it doesn't need to be about politics anyway.
    People can be replaced by other people and sooner or later everybody has to die anyway.

    In case of Claria/Gator, I think Bill Gates is more interested in the INFORMATION that Claria collected by installing adware programs on people's computers world-wide.

    EACH software that asks for an internet connection is sending and receiving information.
    I have no idea of the contents of these messages and even when I was able to read these messages, I wouldn't understand the meaning of them, bcause they are coded and certainly not in plain text.
    I wouldn't be surprised that outgoing messages of legitimate softwares contain MORE information than absolutely necessary and I'm sure that marketing experts know how to analyse/use each bit of information in their advantage.
    As long we don't know anything about these messages for sure, they will always be a mystery for most users.
    In other words any software company can use or abuse these messages at will and what users don't know, doesn't hurt.
    Adware/Spyware programs don't even ask our permission.

    The trouble with information is that it can be used in a GOOD way or in a BAD way and knowing human nature it will be used more in a bad way, than in a good way.
    Successfull business men don't wait for good luck and they would do anything to be sure of that luck and INFORMATION about users makes that possible.
    That's what Bill Gates is doing IMO, buying information, maybe not in a decent way, but you don't become that rich by acting like a saint either.

    Negotiating with Claria won't make Microsoft popular amongst users, at least not in the beginning, but people also easily forget. Time heals many wounds and most people won't drop Microsoft just because of that.
    After all they paid for Microsoft software.

    Besides spying on people happens all the time and it starts always in an innocent way, but business people are never satisfied and they want more and more.
    Each time I go to the supermarket, they spy on me too and each product I bought is recorded in all kinds of statistics to satisfy the client even more in the future, at least on the surface.

    My personal opinion is that each adware/spyware program needs to be destroyed and forbidden in the future.
    Adverts belong on websites only without dirty tricks.
    But I also understand why business/marketing people are doing this.
    If people don't want to go to the mountain, you have to bring the mountain to them and that's what adware programs are doing all the time.
    It's all about manipulating the average man on the street.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2005
  14. JRCATES

    JRCATES Registered Member

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    This was my first inclination as well. Of course, it could simply wind up being a "buy out to put out" type maneuver on behalf of Microsoft as well....or at the very least to use Claria as a "research and development" resource center to combat spyware. Many times, businesses will buy businesses simply to put them out of business! Microsoft certainly has the capital to do exactly that. While this hasn't been mentioned in this particular thread, I have seen it mentioned as a possibility in others.

    Another good point. Even though the anti-spyware developers may have an inside track as to which ones are MORE dangerous or threatening, it's entirely possible that some are worse than thought to be, while others are less severe, etc. After all....all AS apps miss items and have different signature databases, etc, and that's why it's generally recommended for users to have and use "2 or 3" AS apps.

    Nice summarization ;)
     
  15. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    That is also possible and that happened more than once in the business world, but I believe that it will be a combination of both.
    Put Claria out of business AND use their information about users to make more money for Microsoft.
    I can't believe that Bill Gates would spend so much money for just putting a company out of business only.
    Even when Bill Gates doesn't buy Claria, it doesn't mean that Bill Gates leaves Claria with empty hands. All kinds of secret deals are possible when Bill Gates puts enough money on the table.
     
  16. meneer

    meneer Registered Member

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    I suppose that the EULA allows installation of MS tools like Gator/Gain :ninja:
     
  17. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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  18. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    That is indeed most troubling. Secret deals between both already exist, but I'm not surprised.
    One step further and adware programs are completely legitimate like adverts on TV.
    If they don't care about adware anymore, they won't care about spyware either and any spyware can be hidden in adware programs and sold as adware.

    The good and the bad guys need eachother to make more money on both sides and adware programs are good tools to manipulate/brainwash ordinary people.
    If they don't want to buy, make them buy, whatever it takes. That's the real business world.
     
  19. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    All the more reason to support the little guys like Javacool and the others that provide protection for us. JMO.
     
  20. Bethrezen

    Bethrezen Registered Member

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    says it all really everyone already knows ms has a finger in every pie and now with all this ill-gotten gain from the spyware industry they can get there fingers in to even more pies

    DAM MICROBLOAT !!!!!!!

    I recon the reason the billey boy wants to buy gater is so that he can have them build some sort of sneaky spyware directly in to windows so that bill can spy on everyone that uses windows

    why else would you want to buy a spyware company
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2005
  21. Brian N

    Brian N Registered Member

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    They also made the spyware that Claria developes less of a threat in their anti-spyware software ..
    They now recommend to ignore it ..

    Bye bye, I wont be using that anymore.
     

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  22. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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  23. The Hammer

    The Hammer Registered Member

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    They added Whenu back to their detection list after public pressure.
     
  24. Brian N

    Brian N Registered Member

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    Just the fact that Lavasoft actually removed this nasty piece of spyware from their database made me stop using it.

    WhenU (also known as WhenUSearch, SaveNow, Save! etc.) displays popup adds, tracks you on the internet and also updates itself. No idea why it should update, don't care either.

    Back to spybot! ;)
     
  25. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    Microsoft denies its antispyware favors Claria

    Story
     
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