Maybe I’ve always misunderstood the term but it seemed to me that spyware was a category of malware that would secretly and excessively harvest user data whatever the purpose or the actor behind it. I’d guess this was more likely to be done for commercial or criminal purposes than state surveillance or espionnage.
Indeed, this quote seems a gross misrepresentation but is it not that harvesting of user data for commercial purposes has become so ubiquitous that the term has shifted to only designate malware used by actual spies?
There’s nothing wrong with telemetry, it’s not supposed to contain identifying or private data. It’s information about feature usage, crashes etc. and it’s very useful for developers. Especially with open-source software, the devs are generally not your enemies, they just want to improve their products. If some apps spy on you under the guise of telemetry, that’s a different issue.
DHS says ICE has ‘no relationship’ with [Israeli] spyware maker Paragon Solutions [whose products ICE is using]
—NPR, literally yesterday
Like I know this is hyperbole for comedic effect, but it’s also completely wrong.
Maybe I’ve always misunderstood the term but it seemed to me that spyware was a category of malware that would secretly and excessively harvest user data whatever the purpose or the actor behind it. I’d guess this was more likely to be done for commercial or criminal purposes than state surveillance or espionnage.
Indeed, this quote seems a gross misrepresentation but is it not that harvesting of user data for commercial purposes has become so ubiquitous that the term has shifted to only designate malware used by actual spies?
Yeah, now they call it “telemetry” and pretend it’s somehow normal and acceptable. But no, it’s fucking not – it’s still spyware!
There’s nothing wrong with telemetry, it’s not supposed to contain identifying or private data. It’s information about feature usage, crashes etc. and it’s very useful for developers. Especially with open-source software, the devs are generally not your enemies, they just want to improve their products. If some apps spy on you under the guise of telemetry, that’s a different issue.
Right, but most of the time it’s for things that do not need to know where I am or any of my private data.
And then all of that conveniently gathered and stored information is just waiting for a bad actors (including corporations) to scoop it up.
It has become normal, though, but its still working on the “acceptable” bit.