Interesting interview. Some snippets:
Q. What’s driven your interest in spyware and advertising on the desktop? Why is Yahoo! the focus of that interest?
A. There’s so much that can be done in terms of how to get onto users’ computers and what to do once your software is there. The concept is so complicated. There are a lot of things that can go terribly wrong, and there’s a lot of room for me to add value by cataloging what’s going on.
Speaking to the second question, time and time again, when I look in dark alleys, Yahoo! is there to be found. I didn’t pick Yahoo!. Yahoo! picked me.
Q. What comes to mind when I say “legitimate adware”?
A. Not much. It’s like “military intelligence” or something. Of the adware that I look at, very little would be installed by a thoughtful, careful informed consumer. It’s just a bad deal. Who wants to trade dozens of pop-up ads for a screen saver that only appears when you’re not even sitting at your computer?
Link here.
Alex Eckelberry