Backed by Google and Sun Micro and lead by Harvard and Oxford, another adware / spyware watch dog type site has sprung up to clean up the Internet and help renew consumers confidence in safe surfing. Based on all the antics from 180 Solutions and others lately, (CDT Asks FTC To Sue 180solutions - ReveNews) it’s clear we need more help cleaning up the net’s bad actors than Ben Edelman, the CDT and the other anti-spyware groups can cover.

At the new site, called StopBadware.org, you can report adware, spyware and malware and consumers can also check to see if software they want to download may be “loaded”. The site will “name not only the program’s developers but also its distributors and in some cases even companies that use such platforms to run ads.” Maybe this will help make some of the affiliate networks clean up their act. Here is the official word from the Google Blog about the initiative, posted by by Elizabeth Echols, Google’s Director of Policy, Global Online Sales and Operations. Putting a Stop to Spyware - Official Google Blog.

“StopBadware.org is a “Neighborhood Watch” campaign aimed at fighting badware…We aim to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and the bad actors who spread it, and to become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware.

Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute are leading this initiative with the support of several prominent tech companies, including Google, Lenovo, and Sun Microsystems. Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid special advisor.

John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center and Harvard Clinical Professor of Law, and Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard Law Visiting Professor and Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University, are StopBadware.org co-directors. Supporting them are an advisory board and working group made up of some of the top experts in the field, including Internet pioneers Esther Dyson and Vint Cerf.”

Press Coverage of this story: Internet brain trust aims to shame spyware makers | Reuters, ABC News: Researchers Launch Anti-Spyware Site, Big-Name Alliance Declares War on ‘Badware’ · MarketingVOX

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