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In my own experience, installing JUST gator, will net you lots of other spyware in a few weeks time. I've done it on some machines as a test. Now, I did it awhile back, but the machine generally just did nothing, with gator installed. Maybe they've cleaned up their act a little bit, but the history of the product will forever keep it in the "spyware" category for me and anyone else that scans for spyware.

I think it really depends upon what you call Spyware. I would call it Malware or Idiotware, but Spyware is a complete misnomer.

You approve of this? They get you to install this software under the premise that you'll "sometimes get an add on your screen." They don't mention that you can't remove it and it's going to download other adware for you.


Yes, they do tell you exactly how to uninstall. They also pay a lot of software developers to make great free software to use. The problem with Gator is that they got bundled in with some evil broad brush of other software providors because a) they write shitty software and b) they make money.

They call this stuff spyware, I think, because it spies on what you do and it shows you ads according to what it thinks you like. None of it (yet.. I think..) is sending your keystorkes out to a remote server, or letting people view your desktop.

It what they do constitutes spying, I expect the CIA to have neon sides on top of their covert agents from now on.

I never said it did distributed computing. I said it analyzed your data with your CPU cycles before sending it off to HQ.

How else do you think it works? Would it ask you to do it for you? "Hi, we don't want to use your precious CPU cycles to strip out your personal information and only provide demographic data, could you do it for us?"

Yeah. You are still full of it, sparky. Go read up on GAIN and you will find out exactly what they do. It's amazingly simple to learn what Gator does, it's on the front freaking page.

If you can't find something on your own system because it's hidden so well, it's spyware.

Here is the link to a Gator removal page which states:

Although the above instructions will remove the Gator E-Wallet information, you may still have GAIN (Gator Advertiser Information Network) software installed.

The next paragraph states:

Unfortunately, GAIN can only be removed by uninstalling the GAIN supported application. You cannot uninstall GAIN directly. Once the GAIN supported application has been uninstalled, GAIN will uninstall itself as well.

Here's the relevant page:

PC Hell

And here's the link for Gators own site which tells you THEY will find out what spyware (drop dead fuckwads) may be installed on your system:

Gator.

You have to click the link down the page which gives you a nice popup and more instructions.

• Some of the Web pages viewed
• The amount of time spent at some Web sites Response to GAIN Ads
• Standard web log information (excluding IP Addresses) and system settings
• What software is on the personal computer
• First name, country, city, and five digit ZIP code
• Non-personally identifiable information on Web pages and forms
• Software usage characteristics and preferences

1. An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies.
2. One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about its competitors.
3. One who secretly keeps watch on another or others.
4. An act of spying.
   
   for those who are illiteratei among us, please check the third definition.
   Thus I declare that you (Gator) are manufactures and purveyors of spyware onto the masses.

...Except that isn't what it does. The "license agreement" you click through clearly says ads will be in a seperate window. People (myself included) define these as "pop-ups" that have their own borders and window controls. But their software does something different.

Really? It says a separate popup window that has the GAIN caption. The window does that completely, so you obviously have never seen what is in question. Again, going off purely what people say without actually looking at the facts.

Their software preys on people who don't understand that a window doesn't neccessarily have to have a border and the familiar "windows blue bar" across the top. Therein lies the deception. (Or, at best, the scummy abuse of the common perception of what a "window" is.)

Right. Just because something doesn't have a 25-30px bar at the top of a window people can't distinguish that it's not part of the webpage. Forget the "GAIN Advertisement" text label it has and the close button. The point of the GAIN/Gator advertisements is to be unobtrusive. They know that popup ads that detract from what you are doing is a feature users don't want, so they make something that users do want. Then you call them names for it.

I don't see where anybody has proven that. Most of the people I know with Gator on their machine want to know how to make it go away... This is also a deceptive lie, since the only "free software" you get from Gator is Gator itself.

Uhm, you do realize how many software products are supported by Gator? Including Kazaa? The end-users get usage of the software for a cost of viewing advertisements. It is clearly laid out for them when they install the software. It is free as in beer, and people who fail to understand what "Advertiser supported software" is, shouldn't install it. Stop making excuses for people who just blindly click through several installation screens telling them what's going on.

No. Dis-allowing deceptive advertising practices harms only Gator (and their "competitors") and benefits everybody. It in no way means "no more non-browser apps" or "no-plugins", it means no deceptive advertising.

Why don't you let people do what they want with their own computers? You obviously have never used Gator (nor recent versions of Gator) so why are you spouting off things that are factually incorrect and trying to label them as correct?

I think if you TRULY explained what Gator did to the people who have it installed, most would want it removed.

Probably, and I'm not arguing that. For most users, they want the free software they get so they put up with Gator though. If you told them, "Gator is here because you installed XYZ software" they would say, "Oh... well I really like XYZ software, and I don't want to get rid of it."

That's what Gator does. It pays software developers.

Of course, uninstalling Gator can be a difficult, if not impossible task. I ended up re-installing Windows after my machine was accidentally infected with Gator.

Than I can say with absolute certainty that you are just an idiot. Gator and GAIN uninstallation is painfully simple. Don't blame Gator because you are too simply too dumb to read their FAQ and follow a simple Remove Programs step.

And no, I don't own stock in Gator. I know people who work there and have used it several times. I do not use Gator, and wouldn't want to. It is poorly coded, but the idea is good.

I think Gator, et al, are guilty of not being completely honest with users about what they're up to.

Gator puts everything on their website, and on GAIN. How much more honest do you want them to be?

The 'other software' is OfferCompanion. Gator installs this software without prominent notification and does not uninstall it when Gator is removed. I didn't address it in my previous (badly linked) post, but the way Gator does its advertisment doesn't inform the user that Gator is the one doing the ads.

This is advertising support software! It tells you it is installing it (KaZaa, DivX.) If a person is too clueless to figure out what is actually being bundled in their software downloads (Which it is prominently listed) why is it not their fault? I'm not sure how you can think that Gator doesn't tell users that Gator is doing the adverts... Gator Advertising Network. Gator.com... they all say in nice big bold letters that they do it.

Spyware spies on the user. Period. That it may say it does so in a 1000 word EULA that 99% of users never read doesn't make it anyless spyware.

By your logic, your ISP and web-browser are all spyware, then. Gator doesn't put it in a 1000 word EULA. They put it on their front page.

I don't understand why you are so pissed off about a company that spends more resources disclosing everything they do, than any other company out there. You may not agree with pop-up advertising, but Gator goes completely out of it's way to let everybody know what they are doing and why.

The Gator eWallet and OfferCompanion are ad-supported software. They are part of the Gator Advertising and Information Network (GAIN), which helps keep software free by delivering messages based on the sites you view.

Most GAIN messages currently come in the form of Pop-Up Windows on top of or underneath other windows on your computer desktop. Some are displayed in windows that float over web sites you are viewing. To learn more about these ad vehicles, click here.