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180 Solutions Sues Zone Labs
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-12-02
 Security News RSS Feed
Kirkland, Washington-based 180 Solutions (180S) has filed suit against Internet security firm Zone Labs based on how Zone Labs rates 180S in their anti-spyware program. The program was warning that software by the marketing firm should be considered armed and dangerous.
180S's perturbation stems from a potential business partner casually mentioning the 180S software, both 180search assistant and Zango, was classified as "Dangerous Behavior" that poses a high risk to users. As one could imagine, 180S was somewhat taken aback and slightly annoyed because the warning says "180search Assistant is trying to monitor your mouse movements and keyboard strokes."
180 Solutions commented on their blog:
Do we serve ads in exchange for providing our users unlimited access to premium content? Absolutely. Do we "monitor your mouse movements and keyboard strokes?" Absolutely not. Not even the most crazed zealot has ever accused us of that, yet Zone Labs continue to profit financially from this fear mongering. Where are the consumer advocacy zealots on this one? Thus far, nowhere to be seen. Or heard.
At this point, Zone Alarm (the Zone Labs software) recommends getting read of the software, saying it has no known usefullness. The blog maintains the company isn't a privacy risk.
Alex Eckelberry of Sunbelt noted in his blog, "This is all going to be rather interesting to say the least." He also quoted the complaint extensively. He's got a link to the actual complaint for download at his blog site as well.
These issues will continue to fester until there is a hard, fast definition of what constitutes spyware and adware. There are some loosely agreed upon definitions but nothing terribly accurate as each company who does adware/spyware wants a different definition as does each company who provides anti-spyware services.
One point Suzi Turner brings up from her ZDNet blog, "As one of my anti-spyware zealot colleagues mentioned, what happens if the court rules that 180's apps are indeed spyware?"
This isn't the first case like this and certainly won't be the last. Of course, one outcome of this suit is that a judge, well versed in this issues could elect to come up with some sort of definition for adware/spyware.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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