CAUCE recently joined the Anti-Spyware Coalition.
The ASC is a group of anti-spyware software companies, academics, and consumer groups such as CAUCE. It seeks to bring together a diverse array of perspective on the problem of controlling spyware and other potentially unwanted technologies. It has created a common set of software behavior that can be characteristic of spyware, and is also working on consumer tips.
CAUCE joins its neighbor CAUCE Canada, already an ASC member, to work in the areas where anti-spam and anti-spyware efforts overlap, particularly in laws against fraudulent computer activity.
The problems of spam and spyware share the complicating factor that the same activity might be legitimate or not depending on whether the recipient has given permission. The identical mail from a mailing list could be legitimate to a recipient who'd asked for it but spam to a recipient who hadn't. Similarly, a program that remotely controls a user's web browser could be legitimate if used as a support tool with the user's consent, or spyware otherwise.
CAUCE looks forward to working with the ASC in areas of shared concern.
