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Comment by lawnchair_larry | Hacker News Reader

It's malware. No one wants adware and toolbars. Even if you ask politely and they say yes, no one wants that, and no one should have it. A spade is a spade.

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More than that, when I see those kind of opt in/out adware or toolbar things in an installer, I immediately lose trust in the underlying software I'm trying to install. Guilt by association.

as i said in response to another post, i hate adware and toolbars as much as the next person, but semantics is important: malware is malicious software. a toolbar that i did not intend to install, but is not malicious, is not malware.

What do you think those toolbars do? Inspect and Inject javascript into webpages, send my web browsing history to their master servers. It cant imagine a toolbar that isn't malicious.

Adware becomes malware when it resists removal.

I consider this sort of software harmful, but there is definitely an important distinction between it and software that actively tries to steal your credit card numbers, run a botnet, or send spam email. We need a word specifically for software that makes an attempt to abide by the law and avoid any outright malice, yet exists in a sort of moral gray area.

I propose "grayware."

How about "junkware" or "crapware"?

And I thought these were already the terms we use for this type of software...

"Malware" as I understand it is basically a catch-all term for software that is harmful (hence "mal").

Don't these toolbars usually report your browsing habits anyway though? If so they are spyware which clearly makes them malware.

Barnacleware.

Malware distributed by IAC / Ask.com, which is Google's largest distribution partner. Some Googlers should pressure them with some do no evil.

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