Badware website guidelines

Badware website guidelines

The following categorizations are designed to identify sites that contribute to the badware problem, intentionally or  otherwise. StopBadware recognizes that a large number of badware websites have been compromised or hacked without the permission, and often without the knowledge, of their owners. These definitions do not presume malicious intent on part of the owner(s) of a badware site. They are merely intended to set forth clear standards for identifying badware websites. 

I. In General

A website is a badware website if it hosts or distributes badware and doesn’t meet one of the exceptions described in Section II. This includes, but is not limited to, websites that do any of the following:

  • Host or distribute badware directly on their site;
  • Automatically redirect to a website that hosts or distributes badware;
  • Link to executable files that are badware, whether hosted on their site or another site;
  • Link to another website that automatically attempts to install badware by exploit onto the user’s computer;
  • Cause the browser to automatically load code from another site that then attempts to install badware on the user’s computer;
  • Contain substantial links (either in nature or number) to other website(s) that predominantly host or distribute badware.

II. Exceptions

Exceptions to the above website guidelines include, but are not limited to:

  • Download repositories that have a demonstrated practice of detecting and removing badware entries;
  • Sites or pages engaged in legitimate, not-for-profit badware research or education;
  • Indexing sites that are automated and comprehensive.