For now, the Web portal is testing the technology, which has been supplied by anti-spyware company PestPatrol. It will offer the toolbar upgrade only to a select number of people at "Beta.toolbar.yahoo.com," Yahoo spokeswoman Stephanie Iwamasa said. It can be used to perform a high-level scan of files on the PC to detect viruses or other applications that were installed surreptitiously and are used to spy on computer behaviour, or spyware.
"The toolbar is the best place to present this application because of its accessibility--you can log on and use your toolbar from any machine--and because it's a persistent application in the browser window," she said.
Yahoo joins others in a fight against a mounting assault from spyware makers. Interest is even growing at the state and federal government levels in regulating and perhaps even banning adware and spyware. Utah has already enacted such a law, and the US House of Representatives and the Federal Trade Commission have convened hearings on the issue in the past few weeks.
EarthLink recently introduced anti-spyware technology for its subscribers. And last week, Google urged software makers to follow common-sense guidelines when writing programs that embed themselves on Internet users' PCs. It said the programs should be clearly labeled, permit consumers to disable them, and not do sneaky things like leak personal information.
I am really sick and tired of these rotten people getting their jollies out of ruining my/our Internet browsing, all the while laughing all the way to the bank. (selling tracked info, sending phishing e-mail, attempted Identity Theft, etc.) I am sick of "Tracking Cookies", too and would eliminate them if I knew how. They are dishonest miserable scum, and should be in jail.