miekiemoes' Blog: Unwanted or wanted toolbars, when to detect..

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Unwanted or wanted toolbars, when to detect..

This is a follow up on a previous blogpost of me: http://miekiemoes.blogspot.be/2012/01/unwanted-toolbars.html
I received a lot of feedback on this (mainly via mail) which was an eye-opener....

We can't ignore the fact that more and more free software is bundled with an additional toolbar or software to cover the costs. After all, developing & have the bandwith available for downloading the software isn't free, so it's understandable they need some sort of coverage for the costs. The affiliate who offers the most is obviously being used more frequently into bundled installs. In most (almost all) cases, when a user installs the software, they are presented with options whether they want - or do not want to install this additional certain software bundle. Since, in most (almost all) cases, this is pre-selected by default, people don't bother with the install screens, don't read and just click "next" and "next". Then, in the end, they are complaining about an additional toolbar/startpage/searchpage they never wanted.

This is exactly why I can't stress enough to read "install screens" while you're installing a program. If you don't want the additional crap, just unselect from the install screens. In case you have installed it already, in most cases, it's easy to uninstall them again. Most of these affiliates have additional uninstall/remove instructions on their site.

Alot of these toolbars or additional software is harmless though - you can basically compare them with the "google" - or "yahoo" toolbar (although there are some exceptions).
This is why I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Should an AV-Vendor detect such (harmless) toolbars or not? Basically, when to detect - or when not to detect?

Comments (5)

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KAPE · 632 weeks ago

In all cases where additional toolbars are offered pre-selected by default, the AV-vendor should detect this and remove it automatically. In other cases - where the user has the choice to select the bundled software by him- or herself - we can consider downloading as a positive choice of the user (even if it's not so). The AV-vendor should not interfere by removing this toolbars, startpages or searchpages.

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miekiemoes 47p · 632 weeks ago

Google toolbars (+google chrome), yahoo toolbars are in most of the cases also pre-selected by default. This is no difference with the others. If we would see a vendor detecting the Google toolbar, it would be reported as a False Positive, while, if it's another toolbar (basically doing the same), it would be OK to detect? :)
This is why, it's not always so easy... ;)
Btw, I am not speaking on malwarebytes' behalf here, my blog is my thoughts and opinions only :)

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Corrine · 632 weeks ago

There is no excuse for including a toolbar with a software security update. In my opinion, that is reprehensible.

Another unacceptable practice is rebranding a toolbar as a security feature as Avira Antivir did with its AntiVir WebGuard, which is really the Ask Toolbar: as shown in the illustration at AV10: How can I install the new Avira Toolbar after updating to SP2?.

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KAPE · 632 weeks ago

In my opinion, the Google-toolbar, Yahoo-toolbar and all the others pre-selected by default, should be threated the same. This could be a sign to stop with this malpractice, even by wellknown companies.

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Business IT · 631 weeks ago

The best antivirus software should detect all plugins and toolbars. They should then give a security score (how dangerous is it, is it signed by SSL) and a frequency score (how many other users have this).

The antivirus software should then give users options to Remove, Ignore and Allow.