Trends in Badware 2007

Trends in Badware 2007, What internet users need to know is StopBadware's 2007 update on the state of badware on the web.

The short report is a plain-English explanation of badware threats to user privacy and security, based on our research over the past year. It explains online security issues such as legitimate websites that have been hacked to distribute badware, social networking scams, and other badware trends that pose significant risk to the average internet user.

"Trends in Badware" is written with nontechnical internet users in mind - folks who love using the internet, but who may not yet have learned about newer badware threats. html pdf

Application Alerts & Reports

StopBadware.org is committed to educating people about badware. According to our guidelines, badware is software that engages in potentially objectionable behaviors without adequately informing the user and seeking his/her consent. Certain beahviors, such as causing irreversible harm to a computer, lead to a designation of badware regardless of disclosure and consent.

We test and evaluate applications that come to our attention, often through public submissions. If an application is found to violate our guidelines, we issue an alert to notify the public. In some cases, we follow up an alert with a more detailed report to shed additional light on the application and its behavior.

Note: We previously used the term "reports" to refer to what we now call "alerts." We are in the process of changing the language of our past reports and our website navigation to reflect the new terminology.

Over time, a software producer may release a new version of the application that addresses the badware issues we identified, or the application may no longer be widely available or widely installed. When we feel that the badware version(s) of an application are no longer prevalent, we consider the alert to be inactive, and we move it into our archive.

The lack of an active alert does not necessarily mean that an application is in compliance with StopBadware's guidelines. It means that we have not tested or not found badware behavior in the prevalent version(s) of the application. It is, unfortunately, not possible for us to comprehensively test every application. This is why we need your help in reporting applications that you believe to be badware.

If you would like to suggest an application for review, or if you are a software producer and have questions about our evaluation process, please contact us at contact@stopbadware.org.