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Back then it was widely recognized as malware, that wasn't a controversial classification. These days if you categorize such software as spyware/malware, you
by darkpuma 8y ago
Back then it was widely recognized as malware, that wasn't a controversial classification. These days if you categorize such software as spyware/malware, you get a ton of pushback. It's become normalized.
When did this happen? Obviously it was a gradual change, but when about was the inflection point? I'd estimate sometime around 2007.
- lotu 8y agoMalware and spyware wasn't generally sophisticated enough to do this type of data collection and targeting. This is a ton of work, as evidenced by the 10s (maybe 100s?) of thousands of engineers employed doing it today. The data Malware and spyware went after was your credit card number, and bank account & passwords. Which they then used to steal money from you. No one ever was worried that malware would build a profile of them and sell it to internet advertisers who would send them more relevant ads.