I got an email today from an anti-spyware company asking me to review their product and post the review on the blog. So I was curious about it and searched google for someone that had already reviewed it. Unfortunantly for the anti-spyware company not many people can say good things about it since it is, itself, spyware. From Major Geeks:
Spyware Terminator now bundles Crawler.com search engine with its anti-spyware program.
http://www.crawler.com/privacy_policy.aspx
As you can see by the privacy policy, Crawler does not appear to be harmful, but it does log ip addresses, routes all searches through them and tracks movements for page rankings (optional).
That said, we find bundling any sort of toolbar or software with an anti-malware application to be inappropriate. Someone looking to remove already unwanted software from their machine should not be forced to install MORE software in order to do this.
Spyware Terminator has been de-listed for this reason until, if ever, the bundled software is removed.
So to all of our readers, I suggest staying away from Spyware Terminator, in fact I suggest you do research on any anti-spyware utility you might use. There are two anti-spyware utilities that I use and trust; Spybot and Ad-aware.
Update: Major Geeks did relist this application, but not without hesitation. Major Attitude, co-founder of the site, will be keeping an eye on the application to be sure that it doesn’t go back to it’s old practices. I still wouldn’t recommend this application because of the companies malware past.
Hi,
I recommend read whole thread, where admin decide that privacy is similar to Google, Yahoo, MSN and other portals and all is safe.
Please read it here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=127830
Very strange, I’m happy Spyware Terminator user and as far as I know the application is listed on MajorGekk with 4.72 out of 5 rating from 159 users which imho corresponds to it’s quality
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5242
I would encourage you to read the entire thread which contains a information about competing companies like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. All of them follow the same practices.
The full thread can be viewed here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=127830
The practices by search engines are nothing new. In fact Google, Yahoo and MSN are really no different. Here are a few bits of information taken from the MajorGeeks thread:
From Google EULA:
http://www.google.com/privacy.html
“Google’s servers automatically record information when you visit our website or use some of our products, including the URL, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of your request.”
From Yahoo! EULA:
http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html
“Yahoo! automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, Yahoo! cookie information, and the page you request.”\
From MSN EULA:
http://mobile.msn.com/device/en-us/privacy.aspx
“We may collect information about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with Microsoft sites and services. We also collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring Web site addresses.”
I am sure the same information can be found for Ask.com, AOL.com, Lycos.com and several other search engines.
Another thing to consider is the reason why the application was de-listed. Major Attitude was referred to a link containing Spyware Terminator’s accompanying product, Web Security Guard. He mistakenly took that bundled version to be spyware.
First, Web Security Guard (WSG) was improperly labeled as spyware. WSG is Crawler’s next big product meant to compete with McAfee SiteAdvisor. People will complain that WSG is spyware, and the bundling of it with Spyware Terminator is spyware related. You need not look much further than McAfee to find another security company with the same practice. When you download McAfee AntiVirus, you are asked if you want to install their web rating product, SiteAdvisor. Why people label McAfee AntiVirus+Site Advisor as clean and Spyware Terminator+WSG as spyware and is beyond me.
Second, the practice of bundling an accompanying product is nothing new, and not frowned upon in most cases. Case in point: “FireFox with Google Toolbar”. All too often I download software titles which ask me to install FireFox with Google Toolbar, yet people shrug this off since there seems to be some kind of love affair with FireFox and Google. FlashGet, one of the most popular freeware applications, was, at one point not too long ago, guilty of including CyDoor adware. They have since removed CyDoor in favor of providing an optional install of Google Toolbar to generate revenue, yet no one looks at this negatively because it is Google, and the minor negative of including Google was offset by the major positive of removing CyDoor.
Lastly, most, if not all download sites have a Zero Tolerance Policy towards spyware, malware, and viruses, particularly Softpedia.com and Download.com. Both Spyware Terminator and its accompanying product, Web Security Guard, are not malware and are therefore quite popular software titles on all major download sites including Download.com, Softpedia.com, Softonic.com, FreewareFiles.com, SnapFiles.com, MAJORGEEKS.COM, and a host of other sites. WSG, publically, is only 2 months old, so it will take some time to distribute it to more sites like Softpedia.com and Download.com
Most importantly, Major Attitude admitted his wrong doing in one of his later posts:
“Thanks, Studiot, my favorite part is guys like HeyBlinkin coming in and putting the situation straight. I don’t care if I am right or wrong, privately or publicly, I just want to make sure you are safe coming here. Period.
Don’t forget, as mentioned, the one we have listed here does not have the toolbar or web security buit in. HeyBlinkin makes a good point that Mcafee does the same thing. I am in the air and playing with it now to decide if we want to list it or leave the smaller version up.
Downside to security is we have all become overly secure and paranoid, probably rightly so
”
This is not a knock against Major Attitude. It takes a big man to make strong claims; it takes an even bigger man to admit he is wrong.
You can’t go wrong with user ratings of 4.72/5.00 on MajorGeeks, 4.1/5.0 on FileForum, 4.6/5.0 on Softpedia, and 4/5 on Download.com.
Feel free to read both Softpedia’s and Download.com’s editorial reviews about Spyware Terminator, both giving older versions of Spyware Terminator a 4/5 rating.
http://www.download.com/Spyware-Terminator/3000-8022_4-10689834.html?tag=lst-0-1
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Spyware-Terminator-Review-30095.shtml
I look forward to your responses to comments on your blog.
@ Todd – I agree things like this can many times come down to the users rating. I would trust a number of users rating a piece of software over a single opinion any day.
Thanks for the detailed write up. We appreciate it!
Based on your comment, will you be giving the proper review Spyware Terminator deserves?
You really did not do anyone good by passing judgement without installing and testing the software first.
I do not mind if your full review is short, but I would just like to at least see that you have taken the time to install the software and formulate your own opinions (not those of MajorGeeks or anyone else).
I will do a proper review of the software as soon as I get a request to fix a computer that has been mucked up by spyware. I don’t think I can offer a proper opinion unless I put it to a real world test.
Okay…I know this is strange, but spyware terminator actually caught a nasty and actually deleted it easily. Keep in mind that AVG free, ewido antispyware and other could not catch it(only Kaspersky online scan detected it but did not delete it since it is the online version). Yes i know this product is created by the notorious company crawler LLC.
But hey, if download.com and softopedia think that this product is good, I assume that it’s fine.
one more thing, don’t google, msn and yahoo actually “keep track” of what their users do? Nice product, however they need to improve the anti virus package.
They do keep track, but how many people do you really want tracking your web habits?