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Watchdog Slams AOL's Free Software

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

A joint U.S.-British software watchdog has urged avoiding AOL's latest free software, giving it a label of badware for its stealth activities.

The criticism was posted on the StopBadware.org site, maintained by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University.

In our preliminary findings, we found that AOL 9.0 (free version) is currently badware because it installs additional software without telling the user; it forces the user to take certain actions; it adds various components to Internet Explorer and the taskbar without disclosure; it may automatically update without the user's consent; and it fails to uninstall completely, the site said.

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein told the Times many of the problems the group cited were already being addressed in planned upgrades of the client software, due out next month, and added the company believes the problems to be minor, non-substantive and non-malicious.

Source: United Press International

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