Microsoft downgrades Gator

p2pnet.net News:- Microsoft has quietly downgraded its detections of
Claria [read Gator] adware in its latest update (#5731) to Microsoft
AntiSpyware released today, writes Eric L. Howes in Broadbandreports.

"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," he says.

Microsoft AntiSpyware used to detect Claria's products and present
users with a aeRecommended ActionAE of aeQuarantineAE.

But, "Microsoft AntiSpyware now presents users with a 'Recommended
Action' of 'Ignore'," although users can "still change the action 
to 'Quarantine' or 'Remove'," says Howes.

As Broadbandreports points out, a New York Times piece says for the
last two weeks, "Microsoft has been in talks to buy a private Silicon
Valley company, a move that underscores just how eager Microsoft is to
catch up with Google, the search and advertising giant.

"The company that Microsoft has pursued is controversial: Claria, an
adware marketer formerly called Gator, and best known for its pop-up
ads and software that tracks people visiting Web sites. The Gator
adware has frequently been denounced by privacy advocates for its
intrusiveness."

When Gator was still Gator, it had the distinction of being named as
one of the two worst spyware applications.

(Saturday 2nd July 2005)

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Source: P2PNet - http://p2pnet.net/story/5429

Cheers, Steve..

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