AOL badware?

Filed under: Business, Internet, Utilities, Social Software

AOL badware?

by Chris Gilmer Aug 29th 2006

AOL has been blacklisted on StopBadware.org due to the main fact that it installs additional software with AOL 9.0 without telling the user. The test of the free AOL 9.0 that StopBadware.org tested, reportedly got the bad grade because AOL did not live up to their "rich legacy" as stated by StopBadware.org co-director John Palfrey. Palfrey says this was the only reason why AOL had got dumped into the same category as malicious badware providers.

AOL has said that they are reviewing the report, and that no company has done more to fight malware than AOL. AOL is taking steps to ensure that the issues are addressed, and that they involve only minor UI changes.

Tags: aol, aol 9, Aol9, badware, blacklisted, download, install, malicious, software, stopbadware

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ThatHollie said 9:18AM on 9-08-2006

AOL 9, perhaps in order to improve speed of loading the user interface, seems to remain in memory at all times. Task Manager shows that it is taking up 5000K+ now when it is not in use in any way except for displaying the little icon under my clock. It admittedly comes up quickly from this icon, with minimal disk access, when I want to use it. But I find this waste of my resources very annoying. (It also cannot be killed from Task Manager, if you do it comes right back.)

Gotta hold on to one of my AOL 8 disks.

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