IS your computer spying on you? And would you always know if it were?
Over the past few years there have seen several well-publicised incidents
when apparently ordinary software turned out to be sending data about its users鈥�
preferences back to the software鈥檚 provider. Back in 2000, for example, it was
the music player Real Jukebox. More recently, privacy organisations such as
Junkbusters have compared Microsoft鈥檚 single sign-on Passport embedded in
Windows XP to an 鈥渆lectronic cattle prod to herd consumers into its marketing
诲补迟补产补蝉别蝉鈥�.
At least Passport makes itself known to the user. What was insidious about
Real Jukebox was that it was only caught by a techie who cared enough to analyse
his outgoing Internet traffic. Real Jukebox has long since been altered to be
more respectful of user privacy. But the downturn in venture capital financing,
ad revenues and general sales has led a number of publishers of 鈥渇ree鈥� software
to become much more aggressive about trying to embed advertising in their
products or use them to collect information that can be resold.
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Built-in advertising usually comes in the form of a third-party module that
is installed at the same time as the main software and serves up ads that the
third party sells, paying the software publisher a commission. These modules are
often piggybacked on file-sharing software (BearShare, LimeWire, KaZaA) or smart
download software.
A trickier example is Gator, a module billed as making it easier to shop on
the Web by remembering passwords and filling in forms. Gator also promises
discount coupons to users. What it tells prospective advertisers, however, is
that it is the 鈥渦ltimate market research tool鈥� and that it can pop up an ad
window on any page they want鈥攅ven competitors鈥� pages or pages with
existing ads.
More sinister in some ways are programs such as TopText and Surf+, another
pair of stowaway software modules, which turn ordinary words into sponsored
links whenever they appear in your Web browser. These modules have business and
political implications: competing advertising cuts into revenues for
ad-supported sites, and government sites lose control over the links they embed
in their text. But the big issue is user control. As Net use embeds itself into
people鈥檚 lives, the knowledge that can be amassed about you just by watching how
you use the Internet becomes terrifying. Worse, a few of the common ad/spyware
modules make changes to your system that can leave it inoperable when you remove
the software.
Naturally, the Net is fighting back. A small program known as Ad-Aware
(www.lsfileserv.com) will scan your system for advertising and spyware modules
and safely delete them for you. But long-term, this may not be enough.
Advertising on the web is becoming far more aggressive (X10 wireless camera,
anyone?).
There is a risk that the technologies that may be used in future companies to
control the use and distribution of copyrighted material such as e-books, music
and video could legitimise ad/spyware. And the saddest part is that the
techniques that open computer use to the mass market鈥攖urning them into
black boxes with a relatively restricted set of easily accessible
functions鈥攎ake it easier to turn them into Small Brothers.