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Sparky Spartacus · Guest

August 29, 2006
A Watchdog Group Warns Against AOL’s Free Software
By TOM ZELLER Jr.

Dealing yet another blow to AOL, a leading software watchdog group
warned users away from AOL’s free client software yesterday on the
ground that it displayed characteristics consistent with “badware.”

The term badware describes a wide array of downloadable applications
that try to install extra components on a computer without clearly
informing users of what they are or what they will do.

The group, StopBadware.org, posted an “open inquiry” into the AOL
software yesterday, meaning that a dialogue has been opened with the
company and that a full “badware” designation is still pending.

The report, however, stated that the AOL client software, which provides
subscribers with a suite of services, also installed extra software
deceptively, altered the Web browser and other computer components
without notifying the user, and did not uninstall completely, among
other “badware behaviors.”

Similar characteristics are often found in pernicious forms of spyware
and adware, often called malware. The StopBadware organization was
founded in part to assist consumers in spotting shady software. The
group is run by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard
Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University.

The group received several tips and complaints about the AOL software
from users at its Web site, and decided to test it.

“All we’re asking is that you tell people upfront what you’re doing,”
said John G. Palfrey Jr., executive director of the Berkman Center.

Andrew Weinstein, an AOL spokesman, said that many of the problems Mr.
Palfrey’s group cited were already being addressed in planned upgrades
of the client software, due out next month, but added that the company
believed the problems to be minor, “nonsubstantive” and wholly unmalicious.

“No one has done more to protect users from malware than AOL,” Mr.
Weinstein said.

Mr. Palfrey agreed that the group found nothing malicious in the AOL
installation, and added that the company had already begun fixing some
of the problems raised. But he also said software did not have to be
malicious to violate consumer trust.

“We currently recommend that users do not install the version of AOL
software that we tested,” the StopBadware.org Web site read yesterday,
“unless the user is comfortable with the level of risk we identify or
until the application is updated consistent with the recommendations in
this report.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

paulmd@efn.org · Guest

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