Anti-virus vendor Symantec is ending its relationship with online market research company ComScore, which makes the "Marketscore" spyware program.

Symantec Corp., of Cupertino, Calif., is in the process of severing its e-mail scanning services from ComScore Networks Inc.'s online behavior-tracking programs, according to Genevieve Haldeman, a Symantec spokesperson.

The relationship had raised the eyebrows of anti-spyware activists critical of ComScore's programs, which capture and store information from online sessions, including encrypted traffic from sensitive online transactions.

Marketscore, also known as OpinionSquare, NetSetter and JDCouncil, is a Web proxy agent that directs all Web traffic from computers it is installed on through servers operated by ComScore, before forwarding the traffic along to its final destination.

ComScore collects data from insecure browsing sessions and encrypted sessions, possibly including online shopping baskets, banking sessions or interactions containing health information, according to disclosures in the Marketscore privacy statement.

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