Google and StopBadware :: The Future of the Internet

Google and StopBadware

February 6th, 2009 | by elisabeth | Published in Future of the Internet | 3 Comments

—By Elisabeth Oppenheimer

FOI readers may have noticed the story (or experienced the phenomenon!) last weekend about a Google malfunction, where Google temporarily labeled all sites as potentially dangerous and placed interstitial screens with warnings if any were clicked upon in the search results. Since 2006, Google has teamed up with the FOI-approved (and JZ-cofounded) project StopBadware, which serves as a central internet space to organize against malware . The idea of the collaboration is that StopBadware investigators come up with criteria to identify sites carrying malware, and Google generates a list of those and other sketchy sites and alerts users who search for them. Google spokespeople said that old-fashioned “human error” on their part caused them to give the “malicious” label to every site, and that everything is cleaned up now. You can read more about the incident here or check out what StopBadware is doing here.

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Raqueeb Hassan says:

February 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm (#)

Thanks for putting up a great work with StopBadware.org.

You have rightly pointed out those two notions about preserving internet’s open nature for a better and healthier internet.

I think you should have more partners around the globe to fight badware.

–
Raqueeb Hassan
Bangladesh
Alice says:

September 6th, 2009 at 12:52 pm (#)

I HATE STOP BADWARE !!!!

It is a virus and malware !!!! Illegal !!!! I did not ask for this service. They did not ask me for my permission to use this so called protective software !!!!! They did not advertise that this was going to happen !!!!!!

This stupid software kidnaps my web pages with no real good reason then it demands that I have to ask their permission for a review for a possible release of my web pages !!! A “possible” release ?

I pay for my websites. I pay for my antivirus software.
These websites are mine !!!! I don’t need any help with any problems that occur on my websites and especially one that is forced on me like a thief in the night.

I say, for those of us who hate this forced protection there should be some kind of list that is maintained by the offenders with our web URLs so they stop shutting down our websites, regardless of whatever reason they come up with.

I have contacted stopbadware.org and complain and all they do is send me an email with the ‘you must ask permission’ link. Typical response for malware I think.

This illegal activity needs to stop for those of us who do not want it !!!!
Travis Romig says:

October 13th, 2009 at 8:49 am (#)

I got my own filters for this so called problems how do I turn stopbadware off.(I almost put 3 curse words in this tiny post because I really hate this thing)

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