False detections upsetting customers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edward Torkington
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E

Edward Torkington

Hi,

I am a developer of Crime Catcher - webcam surveillance
software. Antispyware Beta1 lists this a as a commercial
key logger with a risk of high. This is blatantly
incorrect and is causing a lot of confusion for potential
customers. Can someone tell me how I report this as a
mistake (this forum?) and when will it be updated?

Many thanks for your help,

Edward Torkington
 
Edward Torkington said:
Hi,

I am a developer of Crime Catcher - webcam surveillance
software. Antispyware Beta1 lists this a as a commercial
key logger with a risk of high. This is blatantly
incorrect and is causing a lot of confusion for potential
customers. Can someone tell me how I report this as a
mistake (this forum?) and when will it be updated?

Many thanks for your help,

Edward Torkington
Click to expand...

Ed,
For a short message, you hit on a very complex problem that I think the
spyware removal companies and now Microsoft has to contend with. Spyware is
created by some very talented developers that have lot's of money to perfect
their craft. They are very good at finding ways to exploit things that
legitimate software uses to access the OS. This is the major reason why I
think it is very unfair to blame Microsoft for "holes". If they plug all
the holes, no one would be able to do anything useful online with a PC.
Your particular issue really focuses in on a dilemma. While I have no doubt
your software is legit, you use a couple of keywords like surveillance and
key logger. While your software is developed for legit purposes, there may
be some type of pattern being used that is also being used by the spyware
a..holes that are not quite so legit. Perhaps they use the same type of OS
hook that you do or whatever. So the question becomes, do they fix the
anti-spyware software to not detect this for the benefit of a few, or do
they keep the detection for the benefit of many and ask the few to simply
use "always ignore"? While I am not an expert at this, I suspect Microsoft
is running into this dilemma frequently in the area of server tools.
 
-----Original Message-----
"Edward Torkington"

Ed,
For a short message, you hit on a very complex problem that I think the
spyware removal companies and now Microsoft has to contend with. Spyware is
created by some very talented developers that have lot's of money to perfect
their craft. They are very good at finding ways to exploit things that
legitimate software uses to access the OS. This is the major reason why I
think it is very unfair to blame Microsoft for "holes". If they plug all
the holes, no one would be able to do anything useful online with a PC.
Your particular issue really focuses in on a dilemma. While I have no doubt
your software is legit, you use a couple of keywords like surveillance and
key logger. While your software is developed for legit purposes, there may
be some type of pattern being used that is also being used by the spyware
a..holes that are not quite so legit. Perhaps they use the same type of OS
hook that you do or whatever. So the question becomes, do they fix the
anti-spyware software to not detect this for the benefit of a few, or do
they keep the detection for the benefit of many and ask the few to simply
use "always ignore"? While I am not an expert at this, I suspect Microsoft
is running into this dilemma frequently in the area of server tools.

--

Spider
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/spider1


.
Click to expand...


Hi,

I am not blaming Microsoft for holes and am all for no
spyware etc... However, if Microsoft decide that Crime
Catcher is spyware (I've submitted a form at spynet to
argue it isn't) then they could at least describe it as:

Webcam software used to record images from a webcam.

NOT a key logger. It is a completely incorrect and is
deterring potential customers. It can not be installed
secretly / remotely and so on. Infact does this mean all
webcam software is spyware (most aking an image every x
seconds to upload to a users homepage)? If they describe
it properly at least users will know what they think they
have installed is doing what they want - not logging keys.

Winge over, although I'll be back if this isn't resolved
quickly :-)

Edd
 
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