Posted on 08/29/2006 4:23:57 AM PDT by COBOL2Java
AOL LLC's free Internet client software has earned the company a slap on the wrist from StopBadware.org, a consortium set up to combat malicious software. In a report set to be released Monday, the group advises users to steer clear of the software because of its "badware behavior."
The report blasts the free version of AOL 9.0 because it "interferes with computer use," and because of the way it meddles with components such as the Internet Explorer browser and the Windows taskbar. The suite is also criticized for engaging in "deceptive installation" and faulted because some components fail to uninstall.
The main problem is that AOL simply doesn't properly inform users of what its software will do to their PCs, said John Palfrey, StopBadware.org's co-director. "We don't think that the disclosure is adequate and there are certain mistakes in the way the software is architected in terms of leaving some programs behind," he said. "When there are large programs, some of which stay around after you've thought you've uninstalled them, they need to be disclosed to the user."
Because AOL has taken steps to address StopBadware.org's concerns, the group has held off on officially rating AOL 9.0 as badware, Palfrey said.
Still, the report is not good news for AOL. Other software that has been the target of StopBadware.org reports includes Kazaa, the Jessica Simpson Screensaver and the Starware News Toolbar.
Backed by tech companies such as Google Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Sun Microsystems Inc., StopBadware.org bills itself as a "Neighborhood Watch" of the Internet. It is run out of two well-respected university departments: Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and University of Oxford's Internet Institute in the U.K.
Monday's report states that AOL is taking steps to address StopBadware.org's concerns, and that the company has confirmed that there is a design flaw in its uninstaller software, according to a draft obtained by IDG News.
An AOL spokesman said that it is "clearly ridiculous" to categorize his company's software as badware. "No company has done more to fight malware than AOL, and millions of users are protected by our software every day," said AOL's Andrew Weinstein in an email message. "We're reviewing the suggestions made in the report, and we are taking steps to address them, as they mostly involve minor UI issues."
AOL has been struggling through some major changes of late.
It has opened up its once-private network, offering the AOL 9.0 software for free in a bid to attract new users and boost online advertising as its traditional subscribers have fled. The company now has 17.7 million U.S. subscribers, a drop of 3.1 million over the past year.
Last week, three AOL executives, including Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Maureen Govern left the company in the wake of a scandal over AOL's public disclosure of more than 2 million search queries made by 650,000 AOL users.
AOL has also come under fire for licensing its free antivirus software, called Active Virus Shield, with what anti-adware advocates view as excessive advertising and data gathering provisions.
Since the search disclosure, AOL has taken steps to restore consumer trust, said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jon Miller in a recent e-mail to employees. "There is a tremendous responsibility that goes along with our mission of serving consumers online," he wrote. "We have to earn their trust each and every day and with each and every action we take."
StopBadware.org's reports can be found here.
Only this version?? Geeze - all of them suck.
You can get your account cancelled if you are very firm and insistent that they cancel your account. They are sneaky, especially with their really strong indian accents, but you can do it.
I hit a rough patch in my life last year, used AOL for 75 or so days and never paid them a dime because of their 90 day free trial.
It's a pain, but you can do it. Also, their tech support was pretty decent.
That said, their software sucks and ir really hard to complelely remove.
LOL, Compuserve. 2400 baud modems, 8" floppy's, COBOL.
Ah, the good old days!
I'll bet you probably still have a link to that site ; )
Has anyone else heard the recording on the net of the AOL rep that will not let the guy cancel his account? When I heard it I thought it was a humorous fake, but now I hear it is real. Anyone know?
If it is real it would not surprise me. I still get phone calls occasionally from a collector trying to get me to pay an AOL bill for an account from ~97 that I cancelled and they didn't - called and e-mailed them to end it, then closed the bank account they were drawing on. They still seem to think I owe them. The only thing they are owed is distain.
Yeah, RealPlayer is the mother of all bloatware. I avoid it like the plague. As for Adobe reader, you can choose not to install the google toolbar during installation. Adobe has become very annoying to me. Used to, you could install the program quickly with no worries, but in the last two versions they created an installer that takes forever on a slower PC, and they try to slip in 3rd party software on you.
Ah, the days of XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM and Kermit.
Mustang and Wildcat BBS could run on my 286/16 with a whopping 512k of RAM and a 30MB HD.
Now I have digital photo RAW files larger than that first hard drive.
That's about all they're good for.
Isn't there any software out there that deals exclusively with removing AOL from a computer?
I don't know. It SHOULD uninstall using windows, but won't.
fdisk works remarkably well.. :0)
I used Prodigy. LOL! Also went through AO hell.
Thanks for posting the article. Glad to see it's finally being equated with malware.
Agreed.
Unfortunately, part of my job involves streaming Real Media.
We began offering alternative formats a few years back because a portion of our more intelligent customers flat-out refused to install RealPlayer (and the host of other garbage that comes along with it).
BTW - Real charges big $$$ for their wonderful streaming server software.
Double BTW - GOOD LUCK if you ever want to edit or convert Real Media to another format. It can be done, but it ain't easy.
As you might have guessed, I am not a fan.
WinXP's System Restore function ought to work.
I still have an original Hayes Smartmodem 300 around here somewhere, in the sleek extruded aluminum case.
Mt dad was a computer geek who started his own cumputer business in 1966. We had all those toys at some point.
Funny thing is my cable modem has as many lights on the front as those old Hayes and rockwell modems. The box sure hasn't changed a heck of a lot, but what it does sure has.
Quicktime is also malicious.
Paging Captain Obvious...
AOL's malware has been screwing up sheeple's computers since they went Windows. Each successive version has been more intrusive than the last. I'm sure version 10 will suck even more.
As said previously, sheeple who use AOL deserve what they get.
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