Mike Healan
Feb 5, 2005
The Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors (COAST) appears to be undergoing a messy self-destruction today. Two of COAST's founding members, Webroot Software and Aluria Software, withdrew as members of the consortium on Friday. Another founding member, Lavasoft, withdrew from COAST in December 2003. All three companies cited concerns about the direction in which COAST was heading as reasons for severing ties with the group.
The surviving COAST membership now includes PestPatrol, NoAdware.net, NewDotNet, Weatherbug and 180solutions. (*Update! See bottom of article)
COAST began in 2003 as a group of antispyware software companies and researchers. COAST's goals were to educate the public about the problem of spyware and to work with spyware developers to tame their software and make it more acceptable to users. However, COAST has come increasingly under fire for accepting controversial new members.
Weatherbug makes software which is adware. 180solutions created a very obnoxious spyware known as nCase and, more recently, an adware program known as Zango, which is nearly as bad as nCase. NewDotNet produces neither adware nor spyware but almost universally is disliked by the general public.
There are many in the antispyware community who believe COAST is doing more harm than good. COAST would seem to have a clear conflict of interest. A consortium of antispyware vendors is accepting as members the companies which make the very products that are listed as targets by antispyware scanners. COAST is supposed to be working with these companies to make their software more acceptable, not accept them as members of their own group. This issue came to a head last January after COAST accepted 180solutions as a member.
Does this spell the end for COAST? I believe it does. I predict that there will be more defections, possibly leading to the collapse of the entire organization, within the next week. Even if that does not happen, it will be an antispyware consortium made up largely of adware companies. Whatever happens next week, COAST is dead for all intents and purposes.
Does the possible demise of COAST count as a victory for the spyware makers? The answer to that is a solid "no". All of the individual members of COAST continue to make spyware removal scanners. COAST was not the entire antispyware community. To be honest, COAST was never a particularly relevant member of the community. I don't think anyone will miss COAST and I don't imagine that very many will attend the funeral.
Update
PestPatrol has announced that they too will withdraw from COAST.
Disclaimer:
SpywareInfo has an affiliate relationship with Webroot software and formerly had an affiliate relationship with PestPatrol and Aluria Software.
