Re: SpyWare

[mrduh]

hi guys and gals, this is my first post on Big-O. first off i'd like to say that aim+ is awesome and i've been using it for awhile. It's the best thing next to whatever is really really good. but 1 question that i'm confused about. Does the current release of aim+ 2.2.1 build 65 have "spyware" in it?

mrduh

[Anthony]

No no no no no no no. But to be serious this question and answer have been posted over and over and over... In this thread even.

[Big-O Ryan]

Also, see the AIM+ FAQ, here: http://www.big-o-software.com/products/ ... /faq.php#0

[harra]

They could probably lock it, but it should probably stay Announced. If people do a Google search on AIM+ after Big-O being the first listing, you pretty much get articles about AIM+ possessing spyware or the claim that Big-O has removed the spyware. Since there are still articles floating around that rank high on a search stating that AIM+ has spyware, then people are still going to think it does (When it doesn't).

Plus, there is the little issue of reputation. If people think that AIM+ has spyware, they might make the leap to believing that ALL Big-O products contain spyware. That could hurt the ability for them to get their new, highly anticipated products out into the market (which I sort of doubt now with the huge, loyal following of Big-O groupies we have on this board....lol)

Ray

[Timelessblur]

True I read the artical. As it explain in the FAQs it just the program (AIM+) checking the web site to see if there is a more recent copy of AIM+ around. I know that it can easly be remove and it was just one line of code.

[harra]

I write code for a living and it just irritates me to no end that if I wrote a program that returned the System Specs of the computer running the program, I would get flame mail out the ying-yang about how I am writing "spyware". That kind of data is very crucial for development purposes. Knowing what platforms your software runs on can help in debugging problems and knowing what test platforms to design when testing your code before release.

You just can't please everybody and unfortunately in this day and age, the person with the most visible web-server and the loudest voice can do a lot of harm to one's reputation or destroy one's product marketing.

Ray

[Big-O Mark]

There is no code in the current version of AIM+ that could possibly be considered SpyWare by even the most paranoid of computer users.

This issue is rather old, so this thread is going to be locked, but will remain in a visible position on the AIM+ forums for any new users with SpyWare concerns.

If you are a new user and would like more information than what is in this post, please refer to the first post in this thread. It should contain the answers to any questions you may have.