Symantec - New Venture - Spy Software

Over at National Cyber Security there is an interesting article about the new directions that Symantec may be considering. The company is looking into the Spy Software business. According to the article,  which also includes a quote from Symantec’s Gerry Egan,  director of product management in which he states:

Parents get a report showing all the friends in the IM friends list and how much time was spent chatting, so if the kid spends many hours in the week chatting with one person, parents can find out whether that person is a known friend or someone mysterious.

Most of the cases of teens running off with someone they met in chat rooms were preceded with many hours spent in chat, so parents can get a hint in advance. Egan thinks this method avoids straying into the spyware realm.

“We’re tip-toeing up to that line but I don’t think we’re crossing it. Yeah, the kid might not agree,” he admitted.

I think I may have to agree with the author, Greg McKenzie, when he concludes that this is dangerous grounds for any security company. On the one hand your products are supposed to protect clients. So developing spy software that is basically spyware makes for strange bed fellows. Though the intent of Symantec is to increase their profit margins, I think this is one area they should avoid.

After all. Symantec doesn’t have a very good reputation as it is. Doing this may tarnish their image further.

What do you think? Should Symantec go ahead with this new software venture?

Comments welcome.

Full article is here.

[tags] symantec, new, software, spy software, security, [/tags]