It would seem that Congress would pass a law outlawing spy programs that do not explicitly ask the user to approve of the snooping before installing. This is invasion of privacy.

i abhorently dislike anything that gets on to my computer without my consent. That being said, i am a small time content (podcast) publisher and often employ Zango as a revenue stream.
So far, I have not seen any illicit behavior on their part and the revenue i generate is adequate enough to cover my basic overhead.
If a consumer is given adequate notice to what they're downloading in exchange for free content, i don't see where the problem is. Not reading the fine print is no excuse...if you're uncertain simply opt out...clearly, the unethical practices of "drive-by" installs and other nefarious distribution methods should be stomped out with extreme prejudice...but i don't see that happening in this case.

Robert -- You don't see anything misleading or confusing about the way 180 is partnering with this company?

They are targeting Myspace because of the general impression that Myspace.com users are not very security-conscious and could be easily duped by a drive-by installation.

Kids who post that much personal information about themselves, are perceived to be easy marks by predators, spammers, and spyware distributors.

I have tried in vain over the last 30 minutes to get a bulletin posted on a myspace account with a link to this article, and oddly enough, it will not post as yet. Typically it takes a few minutes, I even tested it.

And Robert anyone who uses Zango for anything is sure to be on my 'ignore' list. You sound like a typical shill for Zango\180.

We've been playing with this thing for a couple of days - the site was actually putting out 404 errors for a while. Is it possible to actually make the EULA box any narrower? Any smaller and the text wouldn't actually fit inside it.

And isn't it against the Myspace TOS to spam products via PM in this way?

Congratulations, Robert - you're officially part of the problem ! People like you are one of the prime reasons crapware like this continues to exist, and flourish.

"and the revenue i generate is adequate enough to cover my basic overhead."

Not to mention how cheaply you sold yourself.

As P T Barnum was said to have said, "There's a sucker born every minute". In Internet time, that's every second. 70 million suckers.

Impressive.

Well maybe people should read first before they install anything. Zango doesn't install without notice. Spyware or not everyone is told what they are about to install so if you don't like it don't do it.

You are all sad. If people think they can have free stuff (which all people want) they will do whatever they need to and complain about it later. At least you can read what Zango is offering. If someone doesn't want it they should click no. I would never be an AOL customer but they seem to be doing ok without me. That is why they call it a free market.

I'm fairly certain that Robert, Jason, and Darrell are different people and he doesn't work for Zango.

Darrell, the users DON'T get what they want. The promised product isn't available yet. That's called fraud. The free market assumes the consumer gets what they paid for. The consumers "pay" by installing Zango's crapware, then they get the message "tracking software isn't really available quite yet".

The website clearly said that you will gain access to the information about myfriendspy. It never said you were going to get it. So it is not fraud. You were downloading zango through a gateway to gain access to a page that was going to provide information about the product. It clearly said that on the first page and the zango gateway.

When law enforcement gets interested at spyware pitches directed at children (as opposed to computer crime directed at big corporations like AOL or Microsoft) something will happen. In the meantime, Congress? Pfeh.

i make up a free site called town of new haven dot org, and im wondering if theres some reason that my site doesnt show up at all on certain peoples computers. is it perhaps because of some kind of content that i rock? google and every other site i can think of works fine on my parents computer but they dont believe i have a site because it never shows up for some reason. others have said the same thing happens to them. i'm wondering if there's any kind of 'internet 2' explanation.

I find it interesting that when I try to post a link to this article in the MySpace bulletins it gets flagged as spam yet the viral ads carying known spyware pass without a hitch. I wouldn't be surprised to find MySpace collecting funds from 180 Solutions.

So, has MySpace jumped into bed with 180 Solutions?

Were do i find some new MS layouts?

Thanks,
Steve

town of new haven, your site is horrible...

Brian--I am wondering why the large companies that are being held up by the denial of service people do not collectively pay some of the internet security firms to provide free scans and cleanups for personal computers. I get my computer scaned every 2 days free at intermute but do not know of any other site that does this. If the home compuers were cleaned up with vastly reduced slave compuers I think this problem could be really helped and at a big net saving for the effected companies and the general economy.

Hey Steve...
I think you can get a bunch of new MySpace layouts at the myfriendspy website. Be sure and click "yes" when the page loads...

Lets put it this way...MySpace is getting OWNED!!!

It isn't an invasion of privacy because of the legal terms users agree to during download.

With that said, I run http://www.TheSpaceTracker.com and I seems as if we are the only tracker online that respects user privacy. We do not reveal IP or myspace profile URL, we do not sell emails and we definatly do not install any spyware. We have conducted studies related to 'Myspace Tracker Bulletin' spam and the results were staggering. A website dedicated to these studies will arise shortly. In the meantime here are some tips that any myspace user should practice:
1) When signing up with any 3rd party myspace.com service, never use the same login information as your Myspace.com account
2) If any 3rd party service asks you to download anything, do not do it; if you need or want the software, do your research before download.
3) Never give your Myspace.com login information to any website regardless of their said intentions.

Happy surfing!

I had zango popping up asking to install on my laptop a few times...and I declined them all. Not only that, I click cntrl+alt+del and check the task box. Guess what? Despite declining...it still open up behind your back. And I click "end task." It went away. Guess what? I still got Zango installed onto my laptop. I had to manually uninstall it thru windows' add/rem. This sort of concern me. DO you think decline an installation will actually work? Who knows!

Thanks for the heads up, i was recommending some on my site (http://myprofilesupport.com). I've taken them down to 'investigate' more...

None of the trackers work like any of us want them to. The only way they work is by cross referencing IP addresses through a particular tracking services website. The more people who sign up for one tracking service and include the code into their profile, the better chances there will be with you seeing who has viewed your page. We have been testing different trackers to see which ones work the best. Check them out at

www.mypsacetracker.blogspot.com

Guess it would help if I got my link correct!

www.myspacetracker.blogspot.com

Now how do I get rid of this spyware? (from the myspace bulletin reposts)

There are web sites that do the exact equivalent of checking everyone's PCs:
AVG anti-virus,
ZoneAlarm firewall,
Shield's Up! (From the creator of SpinRite)
McAfee SiteAdvisor - it brought me here!
Now compare the EULA for Yahoo toolbar with the EULA for McAfee SiteAdvisor.
Go on, read them.
A snippet from Yahoo:
"Yahoo! reserves the right to update and change, from time to time, this Software License and all documents incorporated by reference. You can always find the most recent version of this Software License at http://docs.yahoo.com/info/cpn/eula/. Yahoo! may change this Software License by posting a new version without notice to you. Use of the Yahoo! Software after such change constitutes acceptance of such changes."
Ouch!

how do i uninstall thespacetracker!!!

Does spyware remover software find/remove the addon. Is it removable?

Zango installed on my computer without my consent. Yes, a pop-up appeared asking permission, but I denied it and it STILL downloaded onto my computer. Furthermore, the program was a pain in the butt to remove.

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town of new haven, your site contains content (such as videos) that i believe you dont have the permission to use. it is ILLEGAL to take content that is not yours and post it on your website without the express consent of the originator.
with that said. spyware is what it is. it's like fine print on a commercial, you have to be careful and if you dont catch it, dont buy it. dont ever assume that someone is out there to help you, assume they are going through every measure possible to screw you over.
always read what you agree to. a computer is a sacred sanctum, and spyware defiles it like richard simmons defiles tv.