Check out Law Tech Guru’s post "How Good is Your Spyware Scanner?" He includes a link to a PC World article on the same topic. It seems that some adware companies are petitioning and threatening legal action to get their products removed from the databases of the various spyware/adware detection software packages. The result for you as a consumer is that when you update the software, your system may no longer detect the removed product and warn you about it. There’s been a buzz on the Internet this week about the fact that Microsoft AntiSpyware was changed to give Claria’s installations an "Ignore" rather than a "Quarantine" rating. Clarita used to be called Gator and was sued by many companies over its pop-up ads.  Microsoft denies that the change was inappropriate or had anything to do with alleged ongoing talks to purchase Claria. This is a huge problem and I hope the new Anti-Spyware Coalition can make some headway.