| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 53899 | 2005-01-30 20:49:00 | 1) Sneaky use of EULA & 2) internet access required to uninstall? | Oggy (5399) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 319500 | 2005-01-30 20:49:00 | Hi My daughter was cleaning up her system last night and found some monitoring software that she knew nothing about (180seach assistant). I did a bit of reasearch on the product and found this wee gem under FAQ on it's web site... Does 180search Assistant automatically download itself onto my computer? No, our software has no way of downloading itself onto your computer. When you download one of the programs that we bundle 180search Assistant with, you are shown an end user license agreement. Typically the end user license agreement is shown in a window that has a text box with two choices - accept these Terms and Conditions or Do Not Accept these Terms and Conditions. Many times, people agree to the terms without reading them over. All applications that bundle 180search Assistant explicitly state in their terms and conditions that they have included 180search Assistant. Users must opt-in in order to receive 180search Assistant. All of our distributors have different ways of displaying that license agreement, but all users must click "Yes" or "I agree" in order to receive our software. To avoid this problem in the future, please be sure to read all agreements that you see when downloading additional applications very carefully--especially music downloads, screensavers and games. Now be honest ... how many people actually read their way through the EULA that comes with most software? IMHO this is just a clever way of sneaking stuff onto someone's system and still being able to say "well you agreed to it". Interestingly when she went to uninstall the product, she got a message saying that she had to be connected to the internet to allow proper uninstalling. Can anyone offer a valid reason why this might be required ... or is my paranoia showing again. (Hey, even paranoids have enemies) |
Oggy (5399) | ||
| 319501 | 2005-01-30 20:52:00 | I've seen a few programs wanting to access the net. Well it opens a page up anyway if you're on the net. To ask u why u uninstalled it lol. And some give u 20 questions, I just ignore them. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 319502 | 2005-01-30 20:56:00 | Their FAQ also mentions why you have to be connected to the internet, and it is because you actually download their uninstaller which they say will remove the program in the cleanest way. It is probably safe to use this option for this application. Yeah, and I bet most people never read past the first few lines/paragraphs of a EULA, but once bitten like this, they tend to read ALL of them in future. :) |
Jen (38) | ||
| 319503 | 2005-01-30 21:30:00 | Nope, that 180 thing will foist it's way onto a machine no worries. www.getfirefox.com |
ninja (1671) | ||
| 319504 | 2005-01-30 21:30:00 | Their FAQ also mentions why you have to be connected to the internet, and it is because you actually download their uninstaller which they say will remove the program in the cleanest way. Ha ha. It must be a family failing ... Daughter should have read all of EULA and I should have read all of FAQ! :lol: Cheers |
Oggy (5399) | ||
| 319505 | 2005-01-30 22:04:00 | Morning Oggy - I too had this "package" on my pc - but it also came with a whole host of others - which also could not be removed without a connection to the web - unluckily for me I didn't use that option - and it cost me a total loss of IE6 - and a reformat of "C" - so you may want to have a careful look in things like Add/Remove Programs just to check what else is there. :2cents: |
Shaun2005 (6384) | ||
| 319506 | 2005-01-30 22:34:00 | Now be honest . . . how many people actually read their way through the EULA that comes with most software? IMHO this is just a clever way of sneaking stuff onto someone's system and still being able to say "well you agreed to it" . That is exactly what they rely on to get their junk onto people's computers and because you "agreed" to it you can't really complain about it later, especially if you don't bother reading the EULA prior to installing . It is boring and a pain having to read all the EULAs (especially Microsoft's :dogeye: ) Terms of Conditions, Privacy Policies, etc and I admit that I sometimes don't bother with well-known apps but I accept the risk I am taking and minimise that risk by researching the program I am interested in . If it is a product that I am not familiar with and not that well-used I'll definitely read the EULA and have scrapped installing quite a few because I didn't like what I read . With others I'll accept the conditions but only after research so that there are no unexpected surprises . Harsh as it must seem anyone who blithely clicks Accept all the way through without checking whether it is safe to do so must be prepared for the consequences . :( |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 319507 | 2005-01-30 22:39:00 | I actually agree Foxy - my side of things are sure you get these things - but why make it so hard to get rid of them | Shaun2005 (6384) | ||
| 319508 | 2005-01-30 23:48:00 | Morning Oggy - I too had this "package" on my pc - but it also came with a whole host of others - which also could not be removed without a connection to the web - unluckily for me I didn't use that option - and it cost me a total loss of IE6 - and a reformat of "C" - so you may want to have a careful look in things like Add/Remove Programs just to check what else is there. :2cents: Hey There, Do a google. I tried to remove this of a friends machine and it took me ages. What I discovered is that when you connect to their site to uninstall, its says it does but it leaves it there. It is quite a complicated little tosser to get rid of. Even when I could swear on a stack of bibles THIS high that it was gone, it poped up and complained, yes complained when I installed ad aware. Its malware, its spyware its absolute.... well you get the drift. :rolleyes: Go here (www.sawtoothdistortion.com) for instructions. Note the bit where it talks about the add remover programs applet :) |
Sam I Am (1679) | ||
| 319509 | 2005-01-30 23:56:00 | Cheers The lesson is learnt. I did use Google to find info about it but just looked at the link to the software's webpage as I didn't have much time. I did also see another link as I glanced through them, with the words "edit the registry" so I thought that it might be a tricky sucker to get rid of. Gotta be happy it's on my daughter's laptop and not my dear old PC I guess. |
Oggy (5399) | ||
| 1 | |||||