Re: Marketscore and Higher Ed

[Daniel Medina <medina () COLUMBIA EDU>]

On Mon, Jan 03, 2005 at 01:32:40PM -0800, Stephen D. Franklin wrote:
> Am I the only one who was concerned/upset by the first sentence
> after the bold-face synopsis?
>   "ComScore Networks' Marketscore application is installed on more than
>   1 million PCs in the United States, forming the backbone of a
>   well-regarded research service used by Fortune 500 companies,
>   universities and media outlets, including CNET News.com."
>
> Seems to me that Marketscore exists because these (reputable) folks
> pay for what it produces.  Perhaps higher education has a responsibility
> (opportunity) to do some security awareness training for the folks
> (apparently even some universities) who are footing the bill for
> Marketscore.  Might this be something that EDUCAUSE could help with?

 "Following the money" has proven successful when targetting certain
spam operations.  If you convince the folks who are paying the
spammer/advertiser (or market researcher, in this case) that they're being
done a disservice, they might not want to do business with the
misbehaving party.

 Have you considered calling up some of those Fortune 500 companies who
use Marketscore's research and giving them an earful?  We already see
Symantec not wanting to be associated with them (according to
Computerworld):

              Perhaps trying to increase its appeal, Marketscore is
              advertising itself as an e-mail protection service, in
              addition to an Internet accelerator. According to
              Marketscore.com, members will receive Symantec Corp.'s
              CarrierScan Server antivirus technology at no cost.

              However, that promise doesn't sit well with Symantec,
              which said it has no relationship with Marketscore and, in
              fact, considers the software spyware, said Genevieve
              Haldeman, a company spokeswoman.

              "We don't have relationships with companies that make
              software we consider malicious," she said. Symantec is
              considering legal action to force Marketscore to stop
              using its name and logo on Marketscore.com, she said.

From
http://www.computerworld.com/networkingtopics/networking/story/0,10801,97936,00.html

I see Ernst & Young listed Marketscore's page as well.  Go call up and let
them know how you feel.  Pick a client of ComScore and send them some
mail.

    comScore Clients
    http://www.comscore.com/about/clients.asp

    Major Investors
    http://www.comscore.com/about/investors.asp

Such grass-roots efforts may pay off.

--
Daniel Medina

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