MS sells out and loses creditability

[Jim]

Tell me do you want a company that will change how they
handle real adware for a price?

The number of Claria programs are set to a default action
of "Ignore" in Microsoft Antispyware.In most cases, it will
have a recommended action of "Ignore". This is for actual
adware programs it finds.

Just because Microsoft was negotiating an acquisition deal
with Claria they are allowing spyware on to you system!

Is that what you want in a anti spyware program? A company
that will sell out?

This is Not what I want in an Anti spyware program. They
should be doing their best job to ensure the removal of
spyware. By selling out they have lost all creditability
and I have no faith in adopting or using their product.

What's next? MS approved spyware automaticly loaded onto
your system at next update?

See:
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/microsoft-sets-claria-to-ignore.html

for screen shots and other notes.

 

[AndyManchesta]

Hi Jim


Just because its been classed to ignore doesnt change
anything all you do is click your mouse and change that
to remove if you wish ,

Its detecting more traces of Claria than Spybot,Adaware &
Spysweeper even if you put all 3 of their results
together when i tested this MS Antispy found over 3100
traces , spysweeper approx 800 , adaware 52 and spybot 20
traces so whatever MSAS have done up to now with Claria
is working.

MSAS will give you repeated warnings if you try to
install Claria that its Adware and will give repeated
chances to block it running on your
system ,Spybot,Adaware and Spysweeper doesnt give any
warning when you install Claria

The screen shots are deceiving because they do not give
you the full information so all i can say is try it
yourself and you will see it actually doing better than
the other removers regarding Claria.


Regards


Andy

Not a MVP
Not a MS-MVP
Not nothing just a good ole boy

 

[Guest]

Andy,

I worry that this is a first small step. If MSAS is
going to now "allow" Claria (Gator) by default and
recommend in popups to "allow", what's next? What will
happen when/if Microsoft actually own's this company.

This is definitely selling out the end users and my trust
for MSAS has definitely gone down a several notches.

Jeff

 

[plun]

Hi Andy

How many so called normal users will change this
"Ignore" and remove it ? They all trust MS
and have nothing more information about
this Claria.

So this is ridicoulous to defend.

 

[AndyManchesta]

I understand your concern but its all rumors at this
stage nothing has been released by MS on this except for
the downgrading to 'Ignore' and when i tested this last
week MSAS was faultless ,It doesnt recommend that you
allow Claria.It shows Red Alert Warning Pop-up for each
part you try to install and tells you its Adware then its
asks if you want to allow the threat to run.Even if you
choose Allow on all the warning's as soon as you reboot
MS Pop ups again saying are you sure you really want to
allow the threat to run , so there's plenty of chances to
block it.


I posted the results on here in the general newsgroup
last week and the fact it picked up over 3000 traces and
spybot found 20 says it all really,

If it was spybot finding 3000 traces and MSAS finding 20
i would totally agree with you that MS have gone soft but
its not the case.

I pay for Spysweeper and that only found 800 so its
unfair to say MSAS is trying to put Claria on your
system.

In my view its a matter of threat levels and Claria in my
experience isnt really a problem they really dont seem as
aggresive as they were under the Gator name,You can
download it easy enough then use the add/remove screen to
remove whatever you downloaded from Claria which in many
cases is the end of it.


Its like Spybot has a default setting to ignore
New.net/CDilla and Sidestep but theres no mention of that
on Spybots site and to remove these from ignore isnt as
simple as MSAS, in spybot you need to change the mode to
advanced then goto settings and to ignore products then
to PUPS.sbi and enable them from there.


I personally think if MS did buy Claria it would remove
the threat and all of Claria's products will be dumped as
they have nothing to offer MS except for there inside
view of spyware and spyware tactics,Im sure MS are not
trying to buy 'Dashbar', 'GotSmiley' 'DateManager' or
any other of Claria's crap but to be honest ive not been
reading these stories as it all seems to be based round
the 'ignore' screenshots that are going around .


I appreciate everyone will have mixed view on this but i
thought id post with there being alot of Claria topics on
here today .If you seriously believe that MS would get
involved in producing spyware then maybe the beta test
isnt for you but thats something you will have to decide.


All the Best

Andy

 

[AndyManc]

Hi Plun


How many normal users will download Claria then complain
about having Claria on there system ?

It doesnt get downloaded by trojans or viruses the only
way you can install claria is by going to their or their
partner sites and download one of thier products

I know you have strong views on this Plun and i believe
you no longer use MSAS because of this but it will not
install by itself. And you will have repeated warnings
from MSAS if you try to install it.


like i said i my last post i appreciate others will not
share my view and some would rather spread all this
Microsoft is making spyware rubbish so you have to take a
step back and actually see what it is and work out how
hard it is to remove ,

I dont think changing 'ignore' to 'remove' is hard and
your comment of who would change it isnt valid if a
antispy product tells you there is adware installed
whether its set to ignore or not any one with a brain
will decide if they use the program and if not they would
remove it

If you downloaded Claria and you didnt like it then use
the Add/remove screen to remove it, its simple. A few
years ago when it was Gator they made a terrible version
of the installer which meant any web page could download
and execute code on your pc but this is old news and this
is why Gator has such a bad name but they dont use that
now

Whats ridiculous to me is so much fuss over a screen shot
that someone posted on a site ,Its got nothing to do with
Claria because ive posted proof of this MSAS detects more
traces than any other remover for Claria (thousands more)
and i had to allow 4 warnings before i could get it to
run and i unistalled it as easy as i installed it,



Im not a fan of Claria and i dont represent MS in any way
so i have no reason to stick up for either of them im
just posting what i found by testing it myself but if you
and hundreds of other people have decided not to use MSAS
anymore thats really your choice, MS Antispy will not
miss the users as im sure for every 1 that uninstalls it
there will be at least 2 more that are willing to join
the test


Andy

 

[Jim]

Until Microsoft publishes these 'objective criteria', and
shows how Claria products managed to get upgraded from
'remove' to 'ignore' under them, we will have no choice but
to assume more ulterior motives

The issue here is not whether or not Windows Antispyware
still detects Claria products...the issue is Microsoft's
recommendation on said products. While it is true that
users still have the option to remove Claria products if
they so choose, the fact is that users had the option to
keep Claria products on their system back when Microsoft
was recommending removal. The insinuation that this change
offers users more choice than previously available is
tacitly false.

The real issue here is Microsoft abusing their position of
trust within the general computer user community. No, I'm
not talking about people like us here...I'm talking about
Ma and Pa Computer User...the ones who see a virus or
spyware warning and panic. Many of these people rely upon
the recommendations offered by the spyware
detection/removal applications to decide on how best to
manage their systems. By artificially upgrading Claria
products from 'remove' to 'ignore', Microsoft is taking
unfair advantage of these users' trust.

 

[Anonymous Bob]

Until Microsoft publishes these 'objective criteria', and
shows how Claria products managed to get upgraded from
'remove' to 'ignore' under them, we will have no choice but
to assume more ulterior motives

<snip>

Are these criteria objective enough:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/isv/analysis.mspx

Bob Vanderveen