What looked like a concession to Claria, a contextual advertising company Microsoft is considering buying, is actually a redefinition of what Microsoft considers to be adware.
In fact, the company has loosened its parameters on what constitutes adware since at least March.
Analysts speculated that Microsoft urged its customers to ignore user-monitoring programs like Claria’s Dashbar, DateManager and GAIN because the Redmond-based company was going to purchase Claria. Instead, Microsoft said that Claria had asked for the exemption as far back as January of this year, and other companies with similar products, including WhenU, have been exempted from quarantine as well.
Adware can be loaded via popup windows and mini-programs like weather-monitoring applications, and is often bundled in p2p porn downloads.
Alex Eckelberry, president of antispyware firm Sunbelt, believes that MAS, which is a consumer product, allows looser definitions of adware than products like his own, which is targeted to businesses as well as consumers.
"You can pretty safely argue that some of the programs they downgraded might warrant 'ignore,' and others, not,” he said.
Microsoft-watchers wonder whether increased litigation against antispyware firms like Sunbelt might have made the software giant lax in its definitions of spyware and adware.