Computer Crash? Blame Verizon

If your PC is slow, crashing, or otherwise misbehaving, it may be because of Verizon. Or British Airways. Or one of another dozen large companies that have advertised through malware from Claria and WhenU.

Claria, formerly Gator, installs malware — specifically, "adware" that spies on your Internet browsing and pops up a window when you hit specific web sites. For example, L. L. Bean alleges in a lawsuit that Nordstrom and J. C. Penny, former Claria customers, would pop up ads for those companies when a potential customer visited the L. L. Bean web site. (Claria has sued L. L. Bean, in return, for filing a "sham lawsuit.")

How does Claria and WhenU software get onto a computer? Usually as part of installation of other software. A download of a "web browser search tool" will have a note, buried deep in the disclaimers, that the software spies on your web browsing and pops up ad windows. This makes installing the malware legal. Despicable, but legal.

In my experience, malware is one reason that people think their computers are "slowing down." I've done troubleshooting on slow computers only to find that malware (not necessarily Claria's and WhenU's) has made the computer utterly unusable. I believe that a good number of people purchase new computers because their old ones couldn't support all the malware loaded on it.

So, why blame Verizon? Verizon, by purchasing ads through Claria, helps to support the malware industry. They aren't ashamed of what they've done; their spokeman said that "it's much more efficient" than other forms of advertising. In other words, Verizon supports malware, and by doing so encourages an despicable industry that does despicable things.

Here's a list, as published in the Wall Street Journal and gleamed by me from the Claria web site, of current and former customers of Claria and WhenU:

• Verizon
• Spritnt
• Motorola
• Orbitz
• British Airways
• Bank of America
• eHarmony.com
• Priceline.com
• Shopping.com

If you have a business relationship with one of these companies, you might want to make them of your opinion of malware.