Academics To Take On Spyware

Internet centers at Harvard and Oxford universities are setting up a project to name and shame spyware vendors. The project's web site -- StopBadware.org -- will compile a list of software that carries "badware" for users to check against before they install something, as well as turning the spotlight on companies that make the software in an attempt to draw unwanted attention to them or even support lawsuits against them. Other people are taking a similar approach, but given the groups behind the project and its big-name backers (Google, Lenovo and Sun), this one should prove highly visible. The first order of business for the group, though, is to settle on a definition of badware.