Hi malware fighters,
Commercialism is everywhere, and ZoneAlarm started to include the Ask searchbar with their spyblocker installation. Read here: http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/another-security-company-succumbs-to.html
What do you think about this step? Another reason to switch to Comodo & BoClean.
polonus
Webroot Software-Spy Sweeper,etc is doing the same thing Damian-what’s going on :
???
Another reason to switch to Comodo & BoClean.or PCTools or something else
Hi drhayden1,
I think the only one that knows is Mammon, also known under the name Moloch.
But this is the excuse they found to do it:
from SciTech SciTech HOME .................................. HOT TOPICS FOX News Election Coverage Celebrity Gossip ------------------------------------------------- Ask.com to Unveil New Privacy Control Tuesday, December 11, 2007and for the other side of the medal, see Ben Edelman’s report:By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer
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SAN FRANCISCO — Hoping to establish itself as the Internet’s least intrusive search engine, Ask.com is empowering people to prevent their search requests from being deposited in data banks.The new privacy control, called “AskEraser,” is scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday. When it’s turned on, the safeguard purges a user’s search requests from Ask.com’s computers within a few hours.
Industry leader Google Inc. stores personal information for 18 months, as does Microsoft Corp.'s search engine. Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL retain search requests for 13 months.
The feature follows through on a pledge that Oakland-based Ask.com made five months ago as it tried to seize the high ground in an escalating debate about how long search engines and other Web sites should hold on to personal information about their users.
“We definitely want to stand out from the other guys,” said Doug Leeds, Ask.com’s senior vice president of product management. “This level of control is unprecedented and unmatched.”
Because Ask relies on Google to deliver many of the text-based ad links on its pages, Leeds said some information about search requests and clicks will still end up on Google’s computers even when AskEraser is turned on.
Ask.com, which is owned by InterActiveCorp, is counting on its privacy commitment to lure more traffic to its site.
With a 3 percent market share, Ask.com is currently the fifth largest U.S. search engine, based on October traffic tracked by the research firm Nielsen Online. Google was by far the largest with a 55 percent share, followed by Yahoo (19 percent), Microsoft (14 percent) and AOL (4 percent).
Among other things, details about search requests help customize online ads aimed at each user’s perceived interests _ a practice that’s drawing more attention from regulators, lawmakers and privacy rights watchdogs.
Search engines insist they vigilantly guard all personal details about their users, but critics worry the stored information could come back to haunt people if the data is subpoenaed in a legal investigation or stolen by hackers.
Other Web sites also are coming under fire for violating privacy rights in pursuit of profits. In a high-profile example, rapidly growing Internet hangout Facebook Inc. last week gave its users the right to turn off a marketing tool that tracks their online activities after more than 65,000 people signed a petition to protest the tool.
The other major search engines revised their data retention policies this year and now store information for shorter times. Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, hopes AskEraser will pressure them to go further.
“This is a good first step,” he said of AskEraser. “We believe people are paying more attention to issues like this.”
Google and its chief rivals say they need to log search requests for more than a year to understand their users’ preferences and deliver meaningful results as well as target ads.
Leeds said Ask.com isn’t worried about the tougher privacy controls undermining the quality of its search results.
Maintaining lists of search requests also is supposed to help combat so-called “click fraud” _ a tactic that can saddle advertisers with bogus charges for advertising if not detected…
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/ask-toolbars/
polonus
I wouldn’t trust Comodo either.
I wouldn't trust Comodo either.And what proof do you have to offer to make such a blanket statement ???
I don’t use ZA products,heheh. I use AVAST! CBOClean and CFW.
I don’t use PC Tools, but i don’t say “I wouldn’t trust Comodo either”
If drhayden1 likes PC Tools products, he can use their products, i trust PC Tools, but i don’t like their products, simply they aren’t my cup of tea.
If you had got problems with COMODO products, don’t use them, I tested beta’s and i had problems, but was my own risk. Sometimes i use products when are in the seond or third update,hehehe. Or if you had problems with stable versions, there are a lot of products. I use them without problems.
I would like to know that as well… ???
Also am a comodo user and i myself prefer it over any other free or paid firewall… it’s results from previous leaktests explains it all also… it’s a very user friendly firewall both version 2.4 and the new CFP 3 firewall.
I wouldn’t trust ANY commercial company… Comodo particularly in their early days had problems with adware/spyware type add ons… You can look up the history…
Welcome to earth…
I wouldn't trust ANY commercial companyA commercial Co. is any company that produces a for profit product. This also includes Alwil's avast! Antivirus program. Blanket statements do nothing except invite controversy. >:(
Hi bob3160,
Do not feed trolls,
polonus
Yes it does, what’s the problem?
Oh wait, i forgot where I’m posting this in…
Okay let me amend it and say that I wouldn’t trust any commercial company except Alwil. Happy now? lol…
I can understand now why you think it is not possible to be too paranoid. Though your paranoia seems to be on the wrong things…
Well I don’t trust PC Tools, but they have one pretty good product (granted they bought it, but still…)
If you had got problems with COMODO products, don't use them, I tested beta's and i had problems, but was my own risk.
It’s not about technical problems (though they do have them like any other products). I don’t trust Comodo products for the same reason why some people don’t use Spyware terminator.
Sorry but it seems where you contribute in a topic you make statements like you have in this, generalisations, accusations without proof, etc. and the topic soon degenerates.
I have no problem with someone contributing something helpful/useful but so frequently all you have contributed is controversy. I still don’t know why you bother, you even said you were leaving, that was short lived.
FUD…
You think this whole topic is FUD? That it is okay for ZA to bundle ask toolbar? Hmm…
There isn’t anything wrong with the ask.com toolbar. Stop complaining start adding something constructive.
There’s isn’t? I’m a fence on this actually. Oh well, again I’m not the one who started this thread.