FTC Kicks Spyware Company In Collective Fanny. Prosecution Begins.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Finally the Feds are going after Spyware makers.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/NEWS03/51005002

The Federal Trade Commission accused Walter Rines of Stratham, N.H., and his company, Odysseus Marketing, of luring computer users with the promise of free software that would make peer-to-peer file sharing anonymous. The claim was bogus, the agency said, and the software was bundled with spyware that was secretly downloaded onto computers.

The agency also said the spyware was impossible to remove. Rines, the FTC said, offered his own “uninstall” tool, but it didn’t work and actually installed additional software.

GRRRRR! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :smack:

[ultrafilter]

It sounds to me like the FTC was going after the guy for making false claims about what his software would do and not just for distributing spyware. It’s still nice to know that there’s one less vendor out there, but I wouldn’t expect a major crackdown any time soon.