Stop Spyware Badware problem
Q: What is StopBadware.org?
StopBadware.org is a “Neighborhood Watch” campaign aimed at fighting badware. We will seek to provide reliable, objective information about downloadable applications in order to help consumers make better choices about what they download onto their computers.
We aim to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and the bad actors who spread it, and become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware.
Q: Who is behind this effort?
Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute are leading this effort with the support of several prominent tech companies, including Google, Lenovo, and Sun Microsystems.
Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid special advisor.
We are educational nonprofits with the support of a broad base of institutions, including corporations, that understand the scope and challenge of the badware problem.
Together we offer legal, policy, and technical analysis to the public, a track record of working with open communities, and a shared desire to bring this problem under control in the near future.
Q: What are StopBadware.org’s goals? What is it trying to do?
In the short term, we aim to be a clearinghouse on anti-badware efforts, providing people with a way to submit their stories and their data, and using that data to inform our research efforts.
We aim to put badware developers on notice- we’ll be writing standards and testing procedures to define what badware is, and we’ll spotlight the worst offenders with the help of the anti-badware community. Finally, we aim to provide the public with quality information about badware and to help inform their downloading decisions.
Long term, we hope to build and participate in a community of organizations, corporations, and individuals who are all working together to stop badware.
