Companies or organizations that contribute to the Badware Website Clearinghouse are called data partners. Although each partner has its own guidelines for determining what sites to submit to the Clearinghouse, these guidelines are generally consistent with StopBadware’s own Software and Website Guidelines. Unless the owner of a website requests a review from us, StopBadware does not independently test or review the sites that are provided to us by our data partners; we merely report the information about the websites that is provided to us by these partners. However, when StopBadware receives review requests for particular websites in the Clearinghouse (see our Request for Review form here), we evaluate the sites based on StopBadware’s Guidelines.

Google’s Guidelines

Google flags sites that cause involuntary installation of software or deceive users into installing malicious software. These include:

• Sites that can cause the involuntary installation of software on unprotected or unpatched machines. For example, hacked sites with code that attempts to secretly install software when users visit the site.

• Sites that deceive users into installing malicious software. For example, sites that appear to link to adult movies, but then ask users to install a browser plugin to view the movies, without telling users that the plugin actually contains a stealth dialer or other malicious components.