Discuss Spyware Terminator listing

[Tokar]

Hello,

I found this page on your website: http://assiste.com.free.fr/p/craptheque ... intor.html

Machine translations done by Google Translate give me a general idea of the issues which are brought up on this page. I would like to further discuss the page in this thread and hopefully get everything fixed/removed.

I apologize for not speaking French.

Thank you.

[pierre]

Hello Tokar,

Welcome

This is a good place to hold this discussion.

I will try to understand what you have to say about this software and, also, in connection with the overlap of the companies behind it.

If you are talking of fixing/removing from the very start, it is that you are from the staff of Crawler, isn’t it?

Things must be clarified. The doubt, the disorder, the organization of opacity, the contradictory declarations and the lack of verifiable evidence will always profit to the Net surfer, with editor’s detriment.

Best regards

[Tokar]

If you are talking of fixing/removing from the very start, it is that you are from the staff of Crawler, isn’t it?

Things must be clarified. The doubt, the disorder, the organization of opacity, the contradictory declarations and the lack of verifiable evidence will always profit to the Net surfer, with editor’s detriment.

Yes, this is correct. http://forum.spywareterminator.com/Defa ... ofile&u=24

[pierre]

Hello,

Well, you ask yourselves why this software is classified here?

As you know it, Crawler states to have written this software and to have separated from Ibis due to its doubtful and reprehensible past.

As you also know it, Ibis states to have heavily invests in the writing of this software and to distribute it for free.

The writings of your companies are contradicted.

Thus one lies. Knowing that Ibis is implied in the production of parasites and is behind you and/or this software, there is a problem.

As long as this problem will not be cleared up without any ambiguity, there will be a strong presumption of fraud and handling of the users. We do not analyze solely the software product but we also look at the transparency of its context. Moreover, as we write it: "Spyware Terminator does not seem to pose problem in itself. It is just one more anti-spywares with quite a little fingerprints database. "

At the same time, we know that nothing is free on the Net. What is the business model (economic model) of Crawler? Who wrote this software? Which are the distributions of the capital of the various companies? What are their links? Hundred percent of the products of the Crawler Company are free! This is not possible! We have to push an alert!

In addition, you must know that a product or a company entered in this zone can leave there at the end of a two years probation begining at the correction date of all the proven problems.

Who, today, heavily invests in the making of something just to distribute it freely?

Well, it's past midnight for me, in France.

See you tomorrow.

Bests regards

[Tokar]

I just recently received a full translation of the page from a French speaking user. I can now better understand the content of the report.

Based on the nature of the content in the report, I will have an associate reply here. He is more knowledgable about our company to address the concerns. (I am new to the company)

[pierre]

Hello Tokar,

I have read the translation made by MacPeter

Regards

[Tokar]

Sorry for the delay. Things have been a bit busy with our new 2.0 release slated for tomorrow.

It seems I will be handling this...

OK, since you have read MacPeter's post, you should know where Im getting my information from. if any of the information there has been incorrectly translated, then please correct me. I am just reading what he translated:



You claim that Crawler Toolbar is installed without user knowledge, by drive-by ActiveX...and that other toolbars from IBIS are probably still in distribution:

http://www.websearch.com/news.aspx?id=1378
That is the press release from WebSearch.com that the distribution of any toolbars that followed any "adware" related business models have been ceased. These toolbars can no longer be obtained or installed. HuntBar, WebSearch Toolbar, etc. They are long gone. That press release is dated in December 2005. Distribution of the toolbars had been ceased 6 months prior.

The only toolbar which is available from Crawler is Crawler Toolbar. This toolbar is installed with the user's full knowledge. When running through the setup of any of our software (except Spyware Terminator or Crawler Parental without Web Security Guard) you will see a screen similar to this one:


(click the image for full version)

Users can clearly opt out of the installation of Crawler toolbar. If you uncheck the box, Crawler Toolbar is not installed.

Please note that if the installation detects Crawler Toolbar already on the machine you will not be presented with this image. You do not need to install the toolbar twice.



You go onto mention that the Crawler software includes Trojans, or uses trojans to download the toolbar.

Our privacy policy clearly states the following fact: Crawler software does not include adware, spyware, trojans, viruses or any type of malware.

Our toolbar has TRUSTe certification: http://www.truste.org/pvr.php?page=td_licensees
If our toolbar was to include badware, it would not be certified.

The only way users can install the toolbar is by downloading it themselves. There are no ActiveX drive-by installations, no trojans, etc. and there never was. I was hired by Crawler in May 2007, and I have been using the toolbar (as a general consumer) since early 2006. I have never encountered ActiveX drive-by downloads. Installation of the toolbar is ONLY done through a downloaded installer file. This installer file can by found on the popular Download.com website.



You claim that there must be some badware somewhere because nothing is free.

Spyware Terminator is 100% free. There are no hidden costs, no hidden software.
Is there licensing somewhere? Yes, we license Spyware Terminator Corporate (a separate program) to for-Profit corporations.

Spyware Terminator, though, is free for private use and non-profit corporations.

You question how we make our money, though. We make our money through a search engine model, similar to Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Microsoft, etc. All of those search engine companies develop free software:

Google - Google Talk, Google Earth, Picasa, Google Toolbar, Google Mail
Yahoo! - Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Mail
AOL - AOL Instant Messenger, AOL Explorer, AOL Toolbar, AOL Mail, AOL Spyware Protection, AOL 9.0
Microsoft - MSN, MSN Explorer, MSN Toolbar, Hotmail, Windows Defender

The previous IBIS model, through advertising, has been discontinued (as seen with the Press Release above).



You bring up that the Crawler toolbar installs a BHO.

Implementation of internet explorer toolbars is done through the installation of a Browser Helper Object. You will find that Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Windows Live Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, AOL Toolbar, etc. all install BHO's.

This is standard, accepted behavior for the installation of all Internet Explorer Add-ons, including Toolbars.



You claim that Spyware Terminator was developed to get rid of competitor products.

Not only is this untrue, but you will find no proof of this (simply because there has never been a case of this occuring).

I have been using Spyware Terminator since early 2006. I have scanned computers containing McAfee AntiVirus, CounterSpy, SuperAntiSpyware, Spyware Blaster, SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor, Ad-Aware, SpyBot, Norton AntiVirus, AVG, etc. and not once have any of those products been detected as threats.

You might be getting confused with our "Safe SW" tab. A unique feature in Spyware Terminator is the ability to detect "Safe" software installed on the user's machine. You may find this tab after performing a scan labeled "Safe SW", or "Sans danger" in the French translation. This tab will list all "Safe" software on your machine that Spyware Terminator has identified as safe and will ignore.

You may also look at our detection database: http://www.spywareterminator.com/stdata/list.aspx. All safe software in this list is clearly marked with the icon of a "green" check mark.

Here is an entry for Ad-Aware: http://www.spywareterminator.com/item/3069/Adaware.html. It is labeled "Safe".

If you have found that Spyware Terminator detects a competing security product as unsafe, then please report it as a false positive.

The only security products that Spyware Terminator would detect are BAD ones listed on this page of rogue, or suspicious security software: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm



You claim we are sending information to somewhere.

There are two bits of information Spyware Terminator sends/receives:
-When the user updates our software, Spyware Terminator will check for newer versions and download the latest version.
-Users have the ability to choose to send the results of their spyware scans to our development team for improvement of Spyware Terminator. This option is disabled by default.

No other information is sent.

You may read Crawler's privacy policy here: http://www.spywareterminator.com/legal/privacy.aspx

This is on par with other search engines. We actually feel our policy gives more privacy to our users than other search engine companies:

Read and compare:
Google Privacy Policy - http://www.google.com/privacy.html
Yahoo! Privacy Policy - http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html
Microsoft Privacy Policy - http://mobile.msn.com/device/en-us/privacy.aspx

I can get an even longer list. In short, there is nothing Crawler does that other search engines already do.

[MacPeter]

Hi everybody,


I'll be just following your discussion. Being active on a security sub-forum I can say only this: we have more and more malware to cope with everyday and that's why things should be clarified as quickly as possible as far as such "problems" as this one ,is concerned. It can't be left in a sort of a fog any longer.


Bonsoir tout le monde,

Je vais tout simplement suivre votre discussion. Comme je suis actif sur un sous-forum de sécurité je ne peux dire que ceci: chaque jour il y a de plus en plus de malware(logiciels malveillants) auxquels il faut faire face, alors s'il est possible d'apporter, le plus rapidement possible, une solution aux problèmes tels que celui-ci, cela devrait être fait. On ne peut pas laisser ce "problème" dans une sorte de brouillard.

(Si vous avez besoin d'un interprète, faites-moi signe...vous savez où me trouver
If you nedd an interpreter, just call me...you know where to find me )

[Tokar]

I kindly request a reply, Pierre.

[pierre]

Hi Tokar

I will read this and make a reply soon (On monday I think).
I am very busy on many things simultaneously.

Regards