[openasocket]

> no malicious intent against the user

Lots of malware doesn't have malicious intent against the user. Like botnets for DDoS attacks. Those things generally don't have any noticeable impact on the user, aside from increased network usage, but do immense damage to their targets.

I agree it's different than typical malware. As for considering ad tracking malware, the term "malicious" is obviously open to interpretation, so yes, you could make the argument that that is malware. You'd just have to convince others this meets the criteria for maliciousness. I've certainly heard people say that DRM software is malware.