Recently an article has been published, that suggests that Skype, the so famous VOIP client, may be collecting some information from the users PC. To be more specific, some details about the BIOS and the motherboard's serial numbe. Read it for full details.
On the ASC, we have been working on some best practices guidelines for the industry, in order to draw a line that separates what should be allowed and what should't. This guidelines talk a lot about proper consent, which means that users should give explicit consent on what information is going to be gathered.
Let's read the section about Consent and Control:
"Users should be in control of their computers at all times. Anti-spyware vendors may evaluate the extent to which the software publisher has asked and received consent from the user before performing activities such as installation or uninstallation, or the collection, use or disclosure of personal information. For potentially unwanted technologies, EULAs alone are usually not enough to offset risk behaviors. Individual consent of risky behaviors may be appropriate."
If we apply this guidelines, and this story about skype is true, should we label this tool as spyware?.