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Is Active Virus Shield a spyware?Their EULA says so.
You might want to think twice before choosing to install Active Virus Shield from Aol.
Not only some people got their pc’s locked after installing AVS but they have problems to uninstalling it as well.
We all have troubles with a software at some point,but people reading AVS’s Eula have learned the following :
At issue is the software’s licensing agreement, which authorizes AOL to gather and share data on how the software is being used and permits AOL and its affiliates to send e-mail to users. "If you go through the installation, just as any normal user would, there is not the slightest hint of any advertising functionality or data gathering of any kind," said Eric Howes, director of malware research at anti-spyware vendor Sunbelt Software."If it actually does any of the things stated in the EULA, we would actually flag it as spyware," said Christina Olson, a project manager with Stopbadware.org.
The Active Virus Shield agreement gives AOL much broader rights to collect information and then to share that information with third parties than typical EULAs, observers said.
A prohibition against blocking ads also caught Olson’s attention. "If you have any ad-blocking software up, you’re basically violating their EULA, which is ridiculous," she said.
This is too soon to happen after their recent goof with the Search Logs.
What are they thinking?
There’s more on this story and you should follow this link and read the rest.
Apparently free things can sometimes come with free troubles.
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- Free Active Virus Shield from AOL
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August 24th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
If you were to site down and look at how many rights you give up in clicking through a lot of software’s EULAs, it would startle you!! It is ridiculous how many software companies abuse the fact that people just click through the installation screens..
August 25th, 2006 at 10:41 am
They also make the EULA’s long and many people won’t understand the meaning of some words.
That’s the right word: Abuse.
August 28th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Isn’t there a claus about your first born son in the AOL software too? But plenty of companies do the whole spyware thing. It’s easier to search a few moan sites than try to translate a EULA. Ed Foster’s Gripe Log is a half decent placeto start.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
I’ll do a search for that.Thanks Harry.
Regarding the EULAs,didn’t really read them till about two years ago.Some of them even make jokes in their policy.