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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Can you spot a spyware site?

"Can you sniff out the presence of spyware on a Web site? Can you tell when a download is about to bombard your PC with spyware or adware? Take SiteAdvisor's inaugural Spyware Quiz, and find out if you're a High Risk User or a Safety Guru when it comes to detecting the presence of nasty downloads. No matter how Web savvy you think you are, there's a very good chance you'll be fooled by at least some of the sites we show on our quiz," says the SiteAdvisor blog.

Comment: This is well worth a go, though it takes a while because you have to check each site picture separately to see what they are like. And if you can beat my score of 7 out of 8, I'm sure you will be able to tell me which one I got wrong ;-)

Ulterior motives dept: SiteAdvisor is promoting an IE toolbar that tells you whether or not Web sites are safe. The product FAQ says: "We're developing premium versions of our software to be sold on a subscription basis. The current trial version of our software is available free of charge. Since Web sites can't pay for ratings, you can be sure that our ratings are objective and uniformly applied." I have not tried it.

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