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Revision as of 10:14, 19 February 2008
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Key people | John Palfrey, Jonathan Zittrain |
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| Website | stopbadware.org |
Stopbadware.org is a consumer-oriented nonprofit organization aimed at fighting malicious software, or "badware". The organization is run by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute. Support is being provided by Google, Lenovo, PayPal, VeriSign, and Sun Microsystems. Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid special advisor.
Staff
Directors of "Stopbadware.org" are 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. Advisory board members include Esther Dyson and Vint Cerf. [www.stopbadware.eu]
Defining "badware"
Stopbadware.org defines "badware" as follows:
- If the application acts deceptively or irreversibly.
- If the application engages in potentially objectionable behavior without:
- First, prominently disclosing to the user that it will engage in such behavior, in clear and non-technical language, and
- Then, obtaining the user's affirmative consent to that aspect of the application. [1]
Stopbadware takes the position that software is badware if it does certain prohibited things, despite any disclamer in an EULA or purported consent by the user. "Silently downloading" and "Installing additional software without informing the user of the identity and purpose of that software (bundling)" are examples of such prohibited behavior.
Stopbadware investigates reports of improper behavior by programs, and may offer vendors the opportunity to reply to the findings of Stopbadware. The "Cross and Hourglass" symbol to the right is used to designate programs where problems have been found but the vendor claims to be attempting to remedy the problem.
Stopbadware uses a yellow "Caution" logo to indicate "applications that have behaviors that users may find objectionable, but that clearly inform users of those behaviors during installation". This covers the case where an End User License Agreement purports to allow the application to perform undesirable behavior.
For comparison, see the "Trusted Download" standards [2] proposed by TrustE for adware and spyware.
Google and Badware
The Google search engine is now teaming up with many antivirus companies to warn users of the search engine from going to sites that have been anonymously reported to distribute badware. When a user searches for a site which has been reported, Google warns the user and only lets them enter by inputting the site URL in the box on their browser. This feature cannot be disabled by the user, and the operator of the website may not be informed about the block. The anonymous reporting together with the slow processing of complaints has caused complaints by some site operators targeted by Google [3].