'Researchware' watches where you click

It's just a small download, promoted as a free antivirus program. But the software is really designed to sit silently on consumers' computers, watch everything they do online, and send the critical data back to the program’s creator. The program has swept the Internet in the last year, with millions of people downloading it.

The newest spyware? Nope. Welcome to the Internet's newest marketing tool, "researchware." 

Consider it spyware's above-board, distant relative. Unlike spyware, researchware makes its purpose clear when downloaded by consumers. Its intent is not to trick people into receiving annoying pop-up advertisements, but rather, to gather legitimate market research data. And it's easy to uninstall, unlike spyware, which is as hard to shake as a bad cold in winter.

Still, not everyone is comfortable with researchware. Privacy advocates wonder if consumers really know what they are doing when they consent to use it. And security-conscious firms say re-transmitting all that Internet traffic — which can include personal financial information — poses a big risk.

Company: It's not spyware
The term "researchware" was invented by the field's pioneer, comScore Networks, to distinguish its Marketscore program from spyware software, to which it had been compared. Marketscore is available as a free download directly from a comScore Web site and from Internet affiliates.

MarketScore entices volunteers by offering protection from computer viruses. In the past, using the name Netsetter, comScore software promised faster Internet connections. In both cases, by downloading the software consumers grant comScore permission to redirect all their Internet traffic through the company's servers. ComScore then studies the traffic to develop powerful market research the firm later sells.

FREE VIDEO Searching the past MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan describe a new Google service and the potential privacy implications. MSNBC

Marketscore has about 1 million U.S. users and another 1 million users overseas, the company said.

“There are responsible ways for companies to gather information about your online preferences,” said Chris Lin, chief privacy officer of ComScore. She compared MarketScore to the television audience research firm Nielsen, which watches the viewing habits of volunteers.

Nielsen, Forrester Research, and Compete Inc. all collect information from Internet users that voluntarily join a panel for research purposes — though none of those firms use the term "researchware" to describe their work. (Nielsen//NetRatings provides user data to MSNBC.com.)

“This is no different than what a lot of other market research companies are doing," Lin said.

Banks cut off researchware users
Not everyone agrees. Security professionals say ComScore dangerously slurps up all manner of personal information, including passwords for online banking services. Several financial institutions have complained about the service, and last month, major banks in New Zealand announced they would no longer do business with consumers who have installed Marketscore.

A fraud official for one of Canada's largest banks who asked not to be identified told MSNBC.com that his firm had recently begun to reject all traffic flowing through Marketscore servers.

“I think people who download the software don't fully understand how much information is going to be collected,” said Larry Ponemon, director of the research firm The Ponemon Institute.

“They tell you it's a value for value exchange.  But as a rational human being, how much would you have to be compensated to take this risk? Their data is incredibly valuable. And there are risks that haven't really been thought about.”

ComScore carefully controls those risks, Lin said. The company’s research data has never been stolen, she said, and the firm regularly submits to outside audits of its privacy and other procedures.

ComScore also goes to great pains to avoid storing critical, personal data, she said. “If identifying information exists, we either ignore it or scrub it,” Lin said.  “We destroy pieces of key numbers and data elements that we think are highly sensitive and that possession of would create a potential vulnerability.”

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