adware, not spyware
I just read an interesting article on wired news about the company formerly known as Gator. A few years ago, they released software that would save a users passwords and automatically log them in whenever they went to a password-protected site. However, bundled with this was another program called OfferCompanion that tracked internet activity and delivered pop-up advertisements based on sites that were visited. Obviously, when people caught on they weren't too happy about this. Consumers who thought they were downloading useful freeware were actually allowing for these intrusive ads to ruin their internet experience. In addition, normal website banner ads were seeing fewer click throughs (and less money) since the pop-ups were taking over. Some big brands reacted by filing lawsuits against Gator, saying Gator's use of the company's brand name in order to create competing advertising was copyright infringement.
This is where things get more interesting. Gator changed its name to Claria and started using the term adware to describe its software, threatening lawsuits against anyone who still called their product "spyware". It still does virtually the same thing that it used to except they have changed their image among big companies, convincing McAfee and Microsoft to remove them from their lists of "malicious software". Also, they are shifting away from the use of pop-up ads since pop-up blockers have become so ubiquitous and consumers have shown that pop-ups aren't the way to get the message across.
With these changes, Claria is currently on the rise, bringing in $100 million in revenue in 2004. This situation seems to show that, for many consumers, the inconvenience of pop-ups is a bigger deal than privacy issues with tracking internet use. Another possibility is that people just don't know that their internet activity is being tracked since the targeted advertisments are now built into the normal landscape experienced when navigating the web.
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