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 COLUMN
Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? She's spying on your network THE ONLY GOOD thing you can say about intrusive software is that IT managers now have ample justification for even the most draconian restrictions on users loading their own software on company systems. When even Reader Rabbit leaves spyware on your network, it's time to get strict.
"We were going absolutely nuts trying to understand what these outbound packets were and who they were being sent to," wrote one IT manager. "It turned out to be something called tsadbot ... [and] it was loaded on some user systems where they had also installed PKZip. PKZip says that this displays ads in their program until you pay for it, and that's OK. But what I don't understand is how come it sits there transmitting to the outside world even when nobody's using PKZip? And how come they don't warn anybody?" A number of readers have encountered tsadbot not just in association with PKZip, but with other shareware titles as well. The tsadbot "adware" utility is actually the product of Conducent Technologies, in Sterling, Va., which licenses it to shareware developers who can give users the choice of paying for the software or having it download ads. Conducent officials explain that their program tries to pick times when the Internet connection is on but not busy to download new ads. And users are warned about the adware, although until recently it was only in the fine print. "It was always made clear in the license of the developer's product what our technology does, but we've learned from our experience that almost everyone just hits the 'next' button without reading it," says Robert Regular, director of marketing at Conducent. "So now we're working with our software partners to make sure their applications display a splash screen during installation that indicates it is ad-enabled software. People are concerned about privacy, and with good reason, so we want them to understand up front what we're doing. This isn't a privacy issue; it's a disclosure issue." At least in theory, I have no problem with the adware model that Regular is advocating. After all, PKZip could be the poster child for shareware that almost everybody has used and almost nobody has bought, and I'd love to see such developers get more of their due. Perhaps adware is the answer, particularly if Conducent and others like it realize that what they're doing is not something to hide in the fine print. Software is intrusive only if it's unannounced and uninvited. From what Regular says, it sounds like Conducent might get this. One company that might not is Mattel Interactive, the Mattel software subsidiary that owns many former Broderbund and Learning Company titles such as the Carmen Sandiego series, Family Tree Maker, Print Shop, and Reader Rabbit. These are not exactly the kinds of programs you'd expect to find in a business environment, and even less the kind you'd expect to come with a hidden piece of spyware. "I spent 3 hours tracking a router killer recently," wrote one reader. "Broderbund's DSSagent.exe, described in properties as a Broadcast Background Agent, was the culprit. It got installed with a kid's game in our environment. It gets added to Startup and then periodically calls the Internet (and wakes up the ISDN router), then tries to hit an IP address that we can't ping. Broderbund support says this is a monitor for new updates to its game; they don't say why they chose to add this to Startup." A Mattel Interactive representative confirmed that DSSAgent, which the company calls Brodcast, was in most Broderbund and Learning Company titles until April, when it was removed. "We included the product to offer value add, such as informing [users] about a new product they might like," says the representative. "We didn't feel it violated any privacy law issues, but in good faith we decided to remove it." This attitude is reflected at the site where Mattel has posted its Brodcast removal utility (see www.mattelsupport.com/broadcastpatch.asp). It says, "Mattel Interactive is proud to be in the forefront of the privacy debate by doing its best to protect privacy even in the instances where is it not required by the law." Does seeing how far you can go without breaking the law put you in the forefront of an issue? I guess so. But if a company that mostly has kids as users feels proud of this behavior, it's time we all take steps to protect ourselves against intrusive software. Next week we'll talk about how. Got a complaint about how a vendor is treating you? Write to InfoWorld's reader advocate, Ed Foster , at gripe@infoworld.com.  RELATED SUBJECTS  Network/System ManagementWeb TechnologiesDiscuss this article in our online forums MORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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