Yes, I'm mirroring a /. story, but this is something that really hits home for me, since I grew up in Minnesota.
It turns out that the Minnesota GOP has been distributing a CD that contains a Flash-based poll system. However, what they don't tell you is that should you run the CD, it phones home to the GOP, along with your name, address, and political opinions! And, to make things worse, this is done without any type of notice in the packaging or the program itself.
Clearly, this is Not A Good Idea. As for myself, I'd put it in the same bin as all the spyware and malware that is floating around the Internet and otherwise infesting Windows machines. (As an aside, I wonder whether an outbound-blocking firewall such as ZoneAlarm would be capable of detecting this mothership-signaling behavior?) Let's hope that this is treated with the same type of legal classification (illegal) that malware deserves.
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