"Spyware" defined by coalition group

Ask any number of computer users what they consider to be spyware and one would be hard pressed to walk away with a definitive answer. Regardless, the general consensus is that no one wants it anywhere near their systems.

To clear these muddied waters, members of the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) have drafted what they are calling "a uniform definition of spyware". ASC is soliciting feedback during a 30-day period, to further tweak the document (PDF 110 KB).

ASC's roster reads like a Who's Who of the IT industry: Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL, McAfee, Computer Associates, Symantec, HP, Earthlink and Trend Micro among others.

This effort to establish clear guidelines on what types of code and software are classified as spyware will help home users, corporate IT departments and everyone in between unambiguously spot and block spyware, according to group.

In a statement, Ari Schwartz, Director, Center for Democracy and Technology added, "One of the biggest challenges we've had with spyware has been agreeing on what it is. The anti-spyware community needs a way to quickly and decisively categorize the new programs spawning at exponential rates across the Internet."

Another facet of the project is to introduce a level of transparency to the inner workings of anti-spyware providers. The document also outlines a vendor dispute resolution process that software makers can consult if they feel that anti-spyware companies have unjustifiably flagged their products as spyware.

read the rest at:
http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/se...le.php/3519496
or the PDF mentioned in the article here:
http://www.antispywarecoalition.org/definitions.pdf

This is the first step in fixing the problem, but this should have occurred years ago. Spyware has been around for many years and was a lot less complicated. They have to word these such documents as to that individuals cannot find a loophole and say that they're software(spyware) does not fit the mould so does not apply.

But i guess you will never stop spyware, but this is the first step in making it a lot less common.