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AOL 9.0 is accused of 'badware behavior'
security.itworld.com ^ | 28 August 2006 | Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: justdiealready
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To: Xenalyte
...since I'm not even sure "engineer" was a word until the last century. I think all those words stemmed from the application of "engine" to locomotives, then transferred to the train's captain.

'Engineer' has been used to describe a military role for centuries.

61 posted on 08/29/2006 7:19:56 AM PDT by Sloth ('It Takes A Village' is problematic when you're raising your child in Sodom.)
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To: FreedomPoster
Friends don't let friends install RealPlayer. If you need to play RealMedia streams, I suggest RealAlternative

A hearty SECOND to that statement!

62 posted on 08/29/2006 7:26:45 AM PDT by CedarDave
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To: battlegearboat
Even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then

gee thanks

fwiw - blind pigs dont retire at 43

63 posted on 08/29/2006 7:35:37 AM PDT by Revelation 911
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To: WKB
Try canceling your service with them.

oh please - after one little wav file makes it to the net, it makes sense to indict the whole company (sarcasm)

64 posted on 08/29/2006 7:37:22 AM PDT by Revelation 911
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To: ShadowAce

No surprise to me. I work in a company that will FINALLY turn off the last IBM 3745 Front End Processor and SNI link we have later this year.


65 posted on 08/29/2006 7:39:20 AM PDT by PogySailor
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To: zeugma

I still have devices using YMODEM for EDI transfers.


66 posted on 08/29/2006 7:40:28 AM PDT by PogySailor
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To: COBOL2Java

ping


67 posted on 08/29/2006 7:42:17 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: KoRn
As for Adobe reader, you can choose not to install the google toolbar during installation.

Yeah, but the text is small, and the box is conveniently checked so that the majority of morons will end up the toolbar anyway.

Another thing that Adobe does is screw around with Windows registry settings so that every time somebody updates their Reader, the registry settings get changed, which basically affects Outlook in a negative way.

If you ever hear about someone going off on a murderous rampage while screaming something about "load behavior", that would probably be me.

68 posted on 08/29/2006 7:49:35 AM PDT by Recovering Hermit (Apparently, most who protest for peace do so at the expense of hygiene.)
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To: Recovering Hermit
" Another thing that Adobe does is screw around with Windows registry settings so that every time somebody updates their Reader, the registry settings get changed, which basically affects Outlook in a negative way."

The Adobe updater is very annoying too. If your on XP you can msconfig it and disable it. It doesn't show up as a service you can disable.

69 posted on 08/29/2006 7:58:35 AM PDT by KoRn
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To: Recovering Hermit
RealPlayer is especially offensive because it basically hijacks your computer for anything multimedia...

RealPlayer is a weed.

70 posted on 08/29/2006 8:02:24 AM PDT by TChris (Banning DDT wasn't about birds. It was about power.)
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To: COBOL2Java
"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."

Disclosure is not good enough. Uninstall should mean uninstall, disclosure or no. A user has the moral right and therefore should be assisted by his software vendor to completely remove any vestage of a certain software package from hardware he purchased with his own money, period. An ISV doesn't have the right to decide that what they want is more important than what the hardware owner wants, except that they have the right to protect their intellectual property from theft.

71 posted on 08/29/2006 8:07:26 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: PogySailor
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.

Somewhere, I still have the printed out Zmodem manual... I bought my wife a 512 megabite SD card for her camera a few days ago, and couldn't help remembering "the biggest DOS hard drive" we ever put in the old 30 megahertz, 386 machine-- 65 megs. Barely fit a 5 1/4 drive bay... you had to do some weird jumper setting to get 65 megs, it was nominally 32, a Mitsubishi, I think.

It's just amazing how the technology accelerates so much.

72 posted on 08/29/2006 3:07:10 PM PDT by backhoe (-30-)
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