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arendt
03-06-2005, 11:02 AM
This story has left me bereft of sarcasm:

From news.com (click for full story) (http://news.com.com/2102-1028_3-5587653.html?tag=st.util.print)

Adware maker joins federal privacy board

By Declan McCullagh

The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board.

An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.

"This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement.
Megabyte
03-06-2005, 11:04 AM
hence why you can't ever expect the gov't to help with the problems people have on the net.
Jeffery
03-06-2005, 01:51 PM
OMG. Well, no more visiting Gov sites, Gator will have infected them all.
h()()t
03-06-2005, 06:49 PM
what in the hell is "GATOR" adware?
Megabyte
03-06-2005, 08:12 PM
gator = single handedly responsible for a large % of the adware that you found on ur comp over the last 5-10 years or so. Its just a company name.
drakonfire
03-06-2005, 08:15 PM
from another perspective, this is like getting an ex-hacker to secure your system, they know it best, so they know how to beat it best, maybe her experience with helping create Gator will give her an insight into how to stop crap that like


of course thats the positive view

the negative view is "oh crap!"
Megabyte
03-06-2005, 08:16 PM
the positive view would mean that they don't make these things anymore...I was under the impression they still do.

More like having the most wanted hacker put onto a team to help program a bank's security.
ArcPaladinZero
03-06-2005, 09:32 PM
Government + Adware = Just what I always wanted!!!
sub the hendrix
03-06-2005, 10:01 PM
uuugh Im sick to my stomach. Pos rep to arendt for finding this.
arendt
03-06-2005, 11:21 PM
what in the hell is "GATOR" adware?

Monitoring software, comes bundled in KaZaa along with sever dozen others like GoZilla. It Serves pop-up ads (obscuring regular ads-this is what got them in real trouble), and monitors the users habits - reporting back all the time. The company made GAIN a spyware ap that did this then got sued by the New York Times, dow Jones, others for obscuring their ads. They (gator) famously threatened companies and journalists with libel suits for calling their product spyware.

Incidently, I hope you weren't using KaZaa, as it's been revealed that, far from decentralized, anonymous file-sharing as claimed, they have the ability to track individual users and log their searches and downloads.
(http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/02/07/0646237.shtml?tid=158&tid=123&tid=95&tid=187)