Nekro Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Adware maker joins federal privacy board Published: February 23, 2005, 5:19 PM PST By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com TrackBack Print E-mail TalkBack An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday. "This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement. Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa. Recently, the privately held company has been trying to seek credibility by following stricter privacy guidelines and offering behavioral profiling services to its partners. In an e-mail message to CNET News.com, Kelly defended the inclusion of a Claria representative on the committee. "I am proud of, supportive of and grateful for those individuals in the public and private sector who are willing to take on the hard tasks, fight the good fight, and who surprise us with creative, fresh and unconventional thinking, and who make change where change is needed through their hard work and personal dedication," Kelly said. In the past, Claria's pop-up ad software has riled some users who claimed it was annoying, installed without permission, and not easy to delete. Publishers also were irked about pop-up ads for a rival's product appearing next to their own Web sites. Catalog retailer L.L. Bean sued Gator for alleged trademark infringement. Claria's representative on the Homeland Security privacy board is company Vice President D. Reed Freeman, a former Federal Trade Commission staff attorney. Other members include executives from Intel, Computer Associates International, IBM, Oracle and the Cato Institute. Kelly said Freeman will "bring his courage and conviction to the board, and will contribute productively--and constructively--to the board's and the public's dialogue on privacy and homeland security." The committee is tasked with providing "external expert advice to the secretary and the chief privacy officer on programmatic, policy, operational and technological issues that affect privacy, data integrity and data interoperability." In February 2003, Gator settled a high-profile case brought by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and other media companies. Terms of that deal were quiet, but Claria appears to have stopped delivering pop-ups to those publishers' sites. Claria did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CNET News.com's Stefanie Olsen contributed to this report. Alternate story (registration required): http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/arc...ator/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogie hands Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 at some point or another i ended up with this gator software on my computer......this shit was so amazingly annoying. ive heard peoples descriptions of what its like to have crabs and having gator on your computer sounds just like that. its about one step away from an actual computer virus..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!@#$% Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 ugh gawd i got that shit too. very fucking hard to get rid of yep, it was like my computer had a venereal disease. :yuck: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ODS-1 Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 I've never heard anyone put it that way. Haaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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