iamom | on Kazaa and spyware

giles pointed out a good article about Kazaa's spyware apps here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/01/04/financial1758EST0370.DTL

Sounds like the project was mismanaged to me. But as long as you fully close down Kazaa between sessions and do not install any third-party programs which you're occasionally invited to do while connected to Kazaa, I would think you'd be safe.

"Spyware" is a touchy word - full of emotion, I think. It's not hard to see why advertisers would like to gather as much demographic data as possible on their audiences in order to push their decreasingly effective banner ads and other promotions to the most carefully-selected groups possible. It should sure as hell be clearly regulated (which it's probably not), but it's hardly the Big Brother scare that it's occasionally made out to be.

Of course, we're all entitled to our opinions...