Yahoo and McAfee Team Together to Bring Search Engine Security

Yahoo Inc. and McAfee Inc. are teaming up to offer alerts about possibly dangerous Web sites in search engine results generated at Yahoo’s search engine. The new search feature will allow people who search the Internet to see a red exclamation point and a warning next to links that McAfee finds as having dangerous downloads or using visitors’ e-mail addresses to send out spam. Dangerous downloads include adware, which shows unwanted advertisements, and spyware, which tracks users’ keystrokes and other actions secretly.

Yahoo and McAfee hopes that the new feature will help people feel more secure when searching on Yahoo’s search engine and visiting sites. Yahoo has chosen to delete the most dangerous sites from their search engine and currently has the second most popular search engine after Google.

This partnership could allow McAfee a way to expose more Internet users to its security software and encourage them to upgrade to the premium versions. McAfee can also use Yahoo’s search information to find sites to examine for security holes and use the information to upgrade its products. The McAfee technology that is used on Yahoo’s site is a lesser version of McAfee’s full SiteAdvisor technology that is free from McAfee.

France Not Promoting Extreme Thinness

France might make it illegal to promote extreme thinness. The French parliament’s lower house adopted a bill that would make it illegal for anything and anyone, including fashion magazines, advertisers, and Web sites, to promote extreme thinness. Judges would be given the power to imprison and fine offenders of the crime up to $47,000 if they are found guilty of “inciting others to deprive themselves of food to an excessive degree.” Judges can also sanction the people or places responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose extreme thinness alters another person’s health.

The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes after the legislation won support from the ruling conservative UMP party. The bill is going to the Senate very soon. Last week, French lawmakers and fashion industry members signed a nonbinding charter on promoting healthier body images.

Leaders in the French couture are against having legal boundaries on beauty standards but some people also feel that encouraging anorexia or severe weight loss should be punishable in court. Doctors and psychologists that are treating people with anorexia nervosa are in support of the government being involved in the fight against the disease.