I am trying to stay out of this one, but eWeek reports “Microsoft Downgrades Claria Adware Detections”. This has caused some concern for those of us testing the anti-spyware tool as I've considered Claria (formerly Gator) to be more than just another annoying pest on a system.
Now, it's possible that Claria has changed their practices: their site now carries an anti-spyware committment logo and they're calling themselves “A leader in online behavorial marketing”. Still sounds like monitoring to me, as evidenced by their Corporate Overview page. Maybe Microsoft will acquire the company to do something different with the technology, but that remains to be seen.