On Sat October 8 2011, you wrote: > On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 2:00 PM, Greg Sweers <[email protected]> wrote: > > Per them all their partners are required to provide an EULA that each > > person has to accept before installing any new software. I do > > classify this myself as adware since that is precisely what its > > doing. ..I don't classify it as malware where they don't notify you > > of installs and such and do a lot of subterfuge as you phrased it. > > Yah, it's an interesting concept. It's certainly adware > (advertisements in software), but different from the usual > implementation, where you see ads while the program you asked for is > running normally. OpenCandy is supposedly only seen during > installation of the program you asked for. > > If, as the purveyors claim, it's only used during installation > (while waiting for the program you downloaded to install), it's > relatively unobtrusive. If, as the purveyors claim, it sends no > identifying information out to others, it's also relatively harmless. > If, as the purveyors claim, anyone using OpenCandy clearly identifies > what it is and does, then it's also honest and above-board. > > PDFCreator adopted OpenCandy a year or three back. There was a big > kerfuffle in the user community about it. The publishers of > PDFCreator responded by offering an alternate installer without it. > The prominent download link on this home page gives you the OpenCandy > version; the other-downloads section has the sugar-free variety. > > Advertisements by themselves are not necessarily evil (advertising > pays for a lot of things many people enjoy), but on the Internet and > computer they often get used in disingenuous or unethical ways. > Examples include advertisements that pop-up when you didn't ask for > it, or track your activity. > > One thing that occurs to me is that many versions of Microsoft > Windows also feature advertisements during installation. So if you > have a problem with using OpenCandy because you see ads during an > install, then in fairness you should also stop using MS Windows. > My main problem is that it *doesn't* go away like it's supposed to when it's done installing the app you requested. According to the OpenCandy, it's supposed to install the app, show you some optional software and then delete itself when it's done installing all the software. On my computer, it didn't. I don't know what it did or didn't do since I last used it to install something. I installed two programs which are identified as using that, and I do not recall ever seeing anything about OpenCandy during those installs. Granted, I wasn't looking for it, but I still think it's a bit wrong to "hide" it from the end-user. At least in previous versions it DID create a unique identifier for your computer. Granted they *say* that the new version doesn't do that, but do you REALLY trust these folks? I sure don't.
-- Thanks, John Aldrich Blueridge Industries IT Manager ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
