Wed, Jan 25 2006 6:01 Don

Google, Sun, others band to fight spyware, adware

A coalition of tech companies, consumer groups and other organizations hopes to do to companies that spread spyware and adware what "America's Most Wanted" has done to fugitives--stop them in their tracks by publicizing their misdeeds.

The newly formed Stop Badware Coalition will publish the names of companies that it deems are the worst offenders and show how they make money through unethical marketing practices and fraud.

Joining the coalition are search giant Google, PC maker Lenovo, Sun Microsystems, Consumer Reports' WebWatch project, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute in England. Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, now Google's chief Internet evangelist, and Esther Dyson, an investor and editor of Release 1.0, are among the advisors to the group. (Release 1.0 is owned by CNET Networks, publisher of News.com.)

CNet
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