Download.com bans Adware
p2pnet.net News:- CNET`s Download.com says it`s launching a new zero-tolerance policy toward all bundled adware.
That means every time you download software from Download.com, you can trust we’ve tested it and found it to be adware-free – period, says senior vp Scott Arpajian.
The company says as of yesterday, it had trashed all existing products identified as containing adware, going on:
“This has eliminated nearly 600 products from our library.”
Looks good. So does zero-tolerance mean Download.com is guaranteeing you’ll never get adware or spyware on your computer?
Unfortunately, no, it says.
For that reason, we strongly encourage – no, make that beg – you to take extra steps to keep your computer free of all unwanted adware and spyware, says Arpajian.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
<------If the Internet is a superhighway, then AOL must be a fleet of farm equipment that straddles five lanes and pays no heed to 'Keep Right Except to Pass' signs / Marko Peric------>
See:-
Download.com – No Adware. No exceptions, April 27, 2005
April 28th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
do they consider cydoor as adware or spyware? and why do they only ban adware? why not spyware, too?
if they consider cydoor as spyware, according to their new policy of only banning adware they won’t be banning that. so what’s the point?
although adware companies insist their products are not spyware, and continually push for removal tools to remove their products from their lists, the majority of users consider (rightly so) that all adware is spyware.
so again, why aren’t they banning spyware?
April 28th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Exactly how much of this is a PR exercice?
How do they define adware and what is excluded from that definition?
April 29th, 2005 at 4:37 am
I’d say ALL of it. They’re probably already preparing the “we’re sorry about the backdown, but they’ve got mean and nasty lawyers threatening to sue us if we don’t let them put their crap back on our site”
April 29th, 2005 at 6:25 am
The is always someone scheming on how to make a mint off someone else. Nowhere is it more apparent than on the internet. Used to be that email addresses were the thing to get. $600 bucks for 10,000 verified email addresses and everyone wanted yours to put in the pot. Folks still do that today, wanting you to register for this or that site. Some are legit and you don’t show up on spammers lists and a barrage of spam hitting your email. The latest thing is to get your data. Who you are, where you go, what you’re interest in so that ads can be taliored to your particular type of profile. From the amount of spyware and adware out there it seems to have replaced the email address as the money maker and now everyone wants to give you something for free.
Long ago, the site in this article was the place to go if you needed to try a product. Then the adware started. After that came the folks that wanted to take open source programs, add their bit of spyware and compile it before releasing it on the unsupecting public. Peerguardian was one such program that was taken advantage of. Embedded spyware that naturally the product didn’t see and didn’t block. Methlabs had a go-around with this site to get the software removed from the offering list. Now-a-days I won’t d/l anything for a sample try unless it is from the original makers site. It doesn’t guarentee you won’t get spyware or adware but it does cut down on the more unscruplous items you can pickup while being unaware that it is there in your computer.
April 29th, 2005 at 6:33 am
Something that has come up recently is that the New York Attorney General Mark Spitzer (sp?) has given a lawsuit to Intermix Ad agency over deceptive business practices. In it he accuses the company of loading computer users computers with ads, toolbars, uninstallable spyware and adware, and several other non-friendly items to their computers. Stating the computer user is often unaware of the process and that the results often cause huge slow-downs and crashs to computers.
April 29th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
LOL!
Eliot Spitzer is NY State Attorney General.
Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals in the Olympics in 1972.
i don’t think he is in politics or law enforcement now.
. LOL