AOL Active Virus Scan EULA permits Adware

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Paul Laudanski <paul () castlecops com>
Date: August 21, 2006 7:10:00 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: AOL Active Virus Scan EULA permits Adware

I was recently contacted by an America Online (AOL) vice president,  
Ted Hopper, about our BHO listing of "AOL Security Toolbar" which was  
described as having adware functionality. That phone call set into  
motion what ultimately is presented here.

AOL recently launched a new service/product called Active Virus  
Shield (Security Toolbar) which received some controversial press  
[1]. It comes with the free Kaspersky AV technology. By all reports  
the application itself could not be found to serve adware (testing  
done by external parties). But that is not what this article is  
about. It is the end user license agreement (EULA) which has raised  
some eyebrows. We find it treading adware territory, and here is why  
as we show via the interesting portions from the EULA...

EULA dissected:
http://www.castlecops.com/a6636- 
AOL_Active_Virus_Shield_Permits_Adware.html



Paul Laudanski, Microsoft MVP Windows-Security
Phish XML Feed: http://www.castlecops.com/article6619.html
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