By now, anyone who has worked in the IT field for more than a day knows what spyware is. As you log into your computer or open your Internet browser, you are suddenly bombarded with annoying popups ranging from diets and mortgages to much worse. It is the problem that I spend most of my day repairing. I think most people will
agree with me that the developers of these programs are the lowest level scum imaginable (unless you are one of them, in which case you probably think I am scum), but have you ever stopped to wonder who is investing in these companies? After all, these companies are in business to make money and not just to make my life miserable.

There is a Web site that was created by Benjamin Edelman, who is an expert in spyware litigation. He has started a small list of known spyware programs, financial contributors, and how much has been invested in these companies. The Web site
appears to be updated on a regular basis.

The spyware programs included on the site include those created by 180Solutions, Claria, Gator, DirectRevenue, and eXact Advertising. These are the companies that claim they are legitimate and not spyware, although in my eyes they are one and the same. According to the Web site, there are more than $139 million dollars invested in these companies, and this list is only a small portion of the spyware
companies that exist.

Here is the interesting part to me. I’m not surprised that companies are investing in spyware. The cost of starting and maintaining a business is so significant that it is very difficult to do so without investors. It also is no surprise that there are
companies that are paying affiliate commissions for tricking or forcing you to go to their Web site. What surprises me is that these investors aren’t shady, dark alley type companies. The list of investors includes companies such as Loews Cineplex, Cellular
One, Emachines, Red Hat, and Expedia, among others. This is absolutely shocking to me. Emachines and Red Hat should be ashamed of themselves. Spyware is the biggest problem with computers today, and to have hardware and software manufacturers contributing money to this is appalling. I’m not a big fan of Emachines to begin with, but
I do still recommend them to some of my clients who are looking for a cheap machine that will only be used to surf the Internet. I will have to seriously rethink whether I want to give any money to these companies that are partly responsible for the headaches that
spyware have given me. No matter how large or small the contributions were (none of the companies that I mentioned had contribution amounts that were listed), the fact that ANY money had been given to these companies is too much.

Now, I know that there are two parts to this issue. The investment of funds is one issue, and the other is that companies are paying commissions to these adware and spyware companies. I should be fair, so I’ll say that I already think the companies
that that are paying to have their Web site ads pop up are not companies that I would do business with.

Am I overreacting to this? I don’t know, maybe I am. Or maybe I’m just naive to think that large companies wouldn’t participate in these types of activities. [Chris Simonek]