Global Security Watch > TRUSTe - BBBOnLine and Hotbar - iDownload

[CastleCops] Hotbar has recently been sending out cease and desist letters to companies such as Sunbelt Software and Javacool Software. Symantec recently filed a lawsuit against Hotbar demanding the right to keep cleaning any trace of them. eWeek is reporting how Hotbar is in trouble with more entities. TRUSTe has pulled Hotbar's authorization to use their Seal.

Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Sunbeltblog.blogspot.com] Sunbeltblog: Here’s what’s odd about all of this. Hotbar is what we label “low-risk adware”. We list them in our database, we display them in the scan results, but we tell the user “This is not a big deal” and we put the default action as "ignore" (as opposed to "remove" or "quarantine"). While Hotbar is clearly adware, it is not nearly as destructive to the system as something like CoolWebSearch.

[Netrn.net] Spyware Warrior: Prepare to get even madder. I just checked my webserver stats for the month of May and the numbers are amazing – the number of search engine hits I got related to Direct-Revenue’s aurora and nail.exe. For both of my domains, this one where the blog is, and spywarewarrior.com (the forum), I got a total of (drum roll please) 20,751 search engine hits for nail.exe. That averages out to about 760 per day.

[Weblogalot.com] Web Blog Directory - CastleCops: In the Hotbar continuing saga of sending cease and desist letters to spyware fighters, Javacool Software, makers of SpywareBlaster sent a detailed response indicating to Hotbar: "After receiving your initial letter, Javacool Software LLC reviewed your software. Based on its review of your software (Hotbar), Javacool Software LLC concluded that the Hotbar software does merit inclusion in the SpywareBlaster(R) database of potentially unwanted software. Therefore, we are writing to you to let you know that, at this time, Javacool will not be changing the status of Hotbar or removing Hotfrom from its database.

[1internetblog.com] Spyware-Removal ( Internet Blog): 0, the browser automatically checks to see whether the site is on a blacklist of suspected virus, scam or spyware sites, or on a “white list” of 150,000 Web sites deemed acceptable by digital certificate authority VeriSign Inc.

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