About two years ago, I wrote that the license of DataViz's "Documents to Go" discloses that Documents to Go is spyware. The license hasn't changed in that time. It still says:
This software includes technology that periodically, if an internet connection is available, contacts DataViz servers with information regarding your installed copy of Documents To Go and your Palm OS device. Data collected includes information regarding Documents To Go product specifications, registration status, type and model of Palm device, desktop operating system, and product usage patterns, including how often this software is used. This information is used to notify you of free maintenance upgrades, product entitlements, new version releases and additional personalized services and offers. Any collected data may also be used for general statistical purposes on an anonymous basis. DataViz may also match your registration and/or product information to personally identifiable information in order to present you with product notifications, offers and invitations (surveys, beta programs, etc.) tailored to you. Any other use of information is governed and limited by DataViz’s privacy policy posted at http://www.dataviz.com/privacy. If you wish to disable this technology, please do the following: Run Documents To Go on your desktop computer. From the Tools menu, select Preferences. Select the Automatic Communications Tab and uncheck the "Enable Automatic Communications" check box. If you are using this software for evaluation, you do not have an option to disable automatic communications.
You can opt out, but first you have to know about it. To know about it, you have to read the license. And we know how often that happens.
Some anti-spyware sites have identified DataViz Messenger as the spyware component in Documents To Go. Outside of these sites, though, I can't find any significant signs of outrage at DataViz for doing this. It's very hard to tell what will anger people and what won't.
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