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AOL ventures on the Zango route
When internet provider America Online said that it would start offering free services in an effort to increase its advertising revenue, few people would have guessed that the provider take it as far as they have done.
The Stopbadware.org initiative on Sunday issued a harsh warning against the website, claiming that the software acts as 'badware'.
Badware really is a politically correct term for malware or spyware. It's just that most badware makers don't want to be called malware or spyware and sue anybody who does (Zango maker 180solutions comes to mind).
In AOL's case, the software installs items without the user's authorization, it contacts AOL's servers without the user's knowledge and it fails to fully uninstall. There's no excuse for any of that.
AOL doesn't steal confidential information or do any of the horrible things that Zango is known for. And Sunday's warning should prevent the provider from wanting to take this any further.
Mission accomplished.
technorati tags: zango, 180solutions, aol, badware, stopbadware.org, malware, spyware
August 29, 2006 at 06:37 PM | Permalink
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» AOL se aventura por la ruta de Zango from Silicon Valley Sleuth ES
Cuando el proveedor de Internet America Online dijo que empezaría a ofrecer servicios gratuitos en un esfuerzo de aumentar sus beneficios publicitarios, pocas personas podrían haber adivinado que el proveedor iba a llegar tan lejos. La iniciativa Stopb... [Read More]
Tracked on 31 Aug 2006 09:55:26
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