World's Most Annoying IE Toolbar

nautical9 writes "Following the same devious footsteps of the infamous Bonzi Buddy, Gator, and Comet Cursor "enhancements", Xupiter now has their own self-installing toolbar for IE. There are many claims that if you leave your security preferences at their default level, it will install itself without your express permission. And once on your system, it's gracious enough to reset your homepage to xupiter.com, forward all your searches to their search engine, download and automatically launch applications (like gambling applets), and blocks all attempts to set these back to normal. Removing it isn't trivial either - it automatically checks for updates upon reboot, where it constantly changes the registry settings it uses, making the jobs of spyware removal programs like AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy much harder. No word yet if it collects and forwards personal data."

Comments

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[eXtro]

When I first started using IBM compatibles there were forms of software which would install themselves on your system and were written to evade removal as well as modify your system in ways that you may or may not have approved of. Writing these packages was considered bad, and propogating them was even considered illegal. These small applications were called viruses.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's usually pretty safe to say that it's a duck. In this case all of these enhancements sound like viruses to me, or at least a derivitave of a virus. Where viruses had to be cleverly coded in order to be as small as possible and avoid detection by a skilled hacker these new pieces of code are large and increasingly rely on being able to remove software that would remove it.

If you modify my system without me requesting it then you've installed a virus on my system. I should be able to call the FBI computer crimes division and get proceedings underway that result in you getting some nice free government accomodations.

Self-installing programs are illegal.

[TheRaven64]

In this country (UK) we have something called the 'Computer Missuse Act'. This is a very dull piece of legislation which says (among other things) that using someones computer without their consent is illegal. Any program which runs on your computer without your explicit consent therefore violates this. If you click 'Okay', on the other hand...

FUI Dialogs?

[davetrainer]

Healan said some installations probably occurred when people clicked "OK" in a pop-up box without really knowing what they had agreed to, or when they meant to close the pop-up window.

Probably because the popup is a fake user interface dialog. How in God's name does even a novice user inadvertently grant permission for a software install when their original intent was to close the window? Or is it common knowledge these days that the X in the top right corner of a dialog box is synonymous with the OK button.

Bonzi is being sued for this, and these scumbags deserve the same.

why are they allowed to do this?

[gabe]

a thirteen year old kid writes a virus that emails itself to everyone in your address book. he's found, caught, sentenced and tossed in jail.

a company comes along and writes a piece of "software" that installs itself on your computer without your knowledge, changes your preferences, watches your every move and reports it back to the marketeers, and digs itself into your system so the only way to get it out is to reinstall your entire computer... (oops, by the way, now that you're using Microsoft products, you may just have to buy a new version due to licensing BS) ... and the worst that happens to the company is some negative press (which, as we all know, bad press is better than no press at all).

so, why the hell isn't the FBI busting these peoples' door down and arresting them? what is the damn difference between what they do and what script kiddies do?

Disclaimer: I am aware that I am exaggerating, are you?