For years, we've been watching this program in its various incarnations. We have yet to see the developer actually post what they consider 'spyware'. There are available keystroke recorders and commercial screen capture programs that can be used to spy on user activity (monitorer, etc.), so there can be reason to use a scanning package like this. But the author continues to remain vague about what exactly his tool seeks out, and screen shots of some interface indicating x number of spyware found is meaningless here.

I so want to help this guy shake the Mac world by the shoulder so we can stop being so smug about our current lack of serious threats -- but his crafty self-promotion, lack of transparency and continuing lack of detail about the software gives me pause. This program has been renamed and reversioned over the years, so one can't easily follow his historical trail on VT. His friends (or alter egos) have posted and played up the package, including past ranking padding. And he won't disclose sufficient info to asuage other people's concerns.

Does this package go beyond finding monitorer on a Mac? Does it recognize the VT tracking cookie as 'spyware'? Does it recognize network serial queires by Adobe, Quark, MS or other apps as 'spyware'? Does it recognize macro viri for Office as spyware? Does it report apps that phone home as spyware? Does it consider open ports like 80/443, 20/21, 22 and functioning services for web/ftp/ssh and alike 'spyware'? The ad on his website suggests that the user might have administrative or remote control software installed and operating without the user's authentication -- that's bull. Timbuktu, Apple Remote Desktop and alike REQUIRE authentication to either install or activate. We still see this company as selling FUD for $25 a pop -- and it feels not quite right.

Once again, I want Nick to sell his package, but he so needs to get away from the FUD on his website and in this product, and offer far more transparency in terms of what this app sees as 'spyware', and how it defeats/isolates/removes such for the user. This package -- if it were to mature -- could be useful in educating users about security issues ANY computer represents. Needs some significant tuning in the marketing. Until then, I have to counsel my customers to STAY AWAY from products that require one to install them BEFORE you can know what they do. Ick.