A Gator By Any Other Name

Gator is changing their name to Claria (see A Gator By Any Other Name – [Slashdot] ). So, this means that a bottom-feeding, scum-sucking product will change from a somewhat reasonable moniker that implies a carnivorous, mud-dwelling reptile to a name that means… nothing. Sounds sort of like Claritin, like “oh, yeah, my computer is going to have freed-up nasal passages because this software is on it”.

What a load of horse manure.

I remember when Amway changed their operating name from Amway to Quixtar. Same company, but they had a bad reputation with one name, so they changed the name they operated under (note: it’s still Amway under the hood).

A name is who you are, and in the real world, for real people, it’s an intense decision to figure out if you want to change your name. It’s often in response to some trauma, and it is both an intensely personal and difficult decision.

There are at least two classes of people for whom operating under a different name is their modus operandi; these individuals find it easy to adopt another personality to avoid their more shadowy endeavors.

Career criminals. And superheroes in comic books.

Gator has a history of being obnoxious spyware/adware that tells them where you’re going and what you’re doing on your computer. They sell this information to others. While this isn’t illegal, I consider it completely unethical. Yet, because some user clicked “OK” at some point to an EULA they didn’t read, Gator/Claria considers it their privilege to indiscriminately rape and harvest that user’s private information for sale to the highest bidder.

I guess in this case, corporations that change their name easily and individuals that change their name easily have a lot in common. And Gator/Claria sure as hell is no superhero.