Shocking article about Ad-Aware

http://thundercloud.net/infoave/premium/archives-2005/week-91.htm

I received an email from thudercloud including this shocking info about the Ad-aware software. Could this be true? Has anyone else hear this?

Why You Shouldn't Rely on Ad-Aware
Windows All Versions

(This tip is based on a question from Sandy who asks "You advertise SpySweeper and Spybot Search & Destroy. I am using Ad-ware. Am I fine with Ad-aware or should I switch to one of the two you recommend? I believe Ad-aware is similar to the two you recommend. Do you have any comparisons or suggestions?")

As of this writing, Ad-Aware does not detect some of the most well-known spyware/adware. For example, it doesn't detect Hotbar, Claria's Gator, WeatherScope, Dashbar, 180 solutions, and other programs that most anti-spyware programs recognize and remove, In fact, Ad-Aware on its site declares that adware, for the most part, is harmless. This is strange that a program whose name suggests that adware needs to be removed does not remove most adware from you computer and, in fact, considers it harmless.

Ad-Aware at one time was one of our favorite anti-adware and anti-spyware programs. But, they've been threatened with lawsuits by several suspected spyware and adware developers. Their response was to remove from their spyware/adware definitions anyone they perceived as a threat to them - not you. In other words, it appears to us, they caved in to the threats fearing financial ruin. It's understandable but not excusable. After all millions have relied (and still rely) on Ad-Aware to protect them. But, Ad-Aware chose self-preservation over your needs. And, looking out for number one has made Ad-Aware weak and worth ZERO in our book.

We still cannot understand how a program called "Ad-Aware" can say that adware is, for the most part harmless. Even if the adware does not threaten your privacy it can be a stinger for your system's stability and a drain on your resources. Every ad displayed in an adware program uses your resources. For what? To display advertising you don't want to see anyway? And most adware shows you targeted advertising based on your private use of your browser and computer. They do this by several means, all of which are potential security risks and, to our way of thinking, privacy violations.

We will never recommend Ad-Aware until it demonstrates that it cares about its users as much as it does about itself. If they're going call adware "harmless" then they should change their name to "Spy-Aware" or "Really-Bad-Stuff-Aware" - or anything that describes what the program might actually do. In other words, anything other than "Ad-Aware".

 

I stopped reading here, because it is untrue.

 

Thank you for replying Adrynalyne,

I really want to believe you. Why would that company make that statement if there was not some weight to it? I am sure they realize that they can be sued for slander.

 

I couldn't really tell you. I know my experience says differently, however. I think slander over the internet is a very grey area. I can tell you this: As of the last time I used Sybot S&D, it by default was set to skip over certain spyware. I noticed they mentioned nothing of that. None of these programs are perfect.

 

Correction: It appears the latest Spybot corrects this. However, in the past (and recently) this was the case.

 

I agree with you Adrynalyne,

I know that you have to use more than one spyware scanner program. As you said and I agree none of them are perfect.

What bothers me most is what the company said further in that mail. That Lavasoft the makers of Ad-aware was pressured into removing certain software names from their detection list. How would they get that info? Talking about a company's software is one thing making direct hits at a company is another.

I have used Ad-Aware, Spybot and Pestpatrol for quite a while. BTW I sent that email to Lavasoft. I am waiting to hear Lavasoft's reaction to CloudEight's accusations.

 

There was some other discussion on this some time ago here. Let me see if I can find it.

Edit: I can't find it. Maybe someone who participated in that discussion could post a link.

 

I hate to say it, but I am becoming a bit disenchanted with Ad-aware . . .

Lately I have come to prefer the new EWIDO. For a new product, it is surprisingly solid! I managed to talk MA into adding it: Ewido Security Suite

A review of the new Ewido


OK - Enough shameless pimping of a new product! ( Though, those who know me here know I don't do it often, so it must be good! )

PP

 

There were (are?) four products SpyBot S&D was (is?) set by default to ignore. You had (have?) to switch to Advanced Mode, go to Settings/Ignore Products and uncheck them: [size=-1] LSP.new.net, New.net, Mysearch, and Sidestep.[/size]

 

Why was this? Because there were complaints that these were not malware.

Same with MS antispyware, they had attacks that certain things they had were posted as malware. Those malware companies complained, so they changed.

Why didn't these companies complain when Giant was in charge...the world may never know.....

 

Well, I run Ad-aware once a day on my PC, and though I have SpyBot, I probably don't even run it but once a month, and it only finds 5 or 6 items.

Bottom line: They can dog Ad-Aware all they want, but it's pretty much all I use and my computer isn't having any problems whatsoever.

 

Same here I run Ad-Aware and have had no-problems with it.

controlmind

 

I use ad aware, among others but I have never had problems with it, I know I did read recently..one of the PC magazines I get that they were being threatened with lawsuits and have been pressured to remove certain things. but as of that writing it was undecided what the outcome of that was going to be.

 

Adaware does a fine job on my pc.

 

ive said this before ages ago on here but I spent ages testing all different anti spyware software and I found that none done a perfect job and that the best way was to use to and like using ad aware and I Microsoft anit-spyware for its real-time scanning and then a month later a pc mag (pc advisor I think may edition) they said the same and they recommended ad aware and MSAS scored the highest on out of al of them so basically as Adrynalyne says none are perfect

 

I've been using MSAS since the beta was initially released, and until this morning I was pretty happy with it. I (stupidly) assumed that the real time scanning and the system scan that I run every night were good enough to keep me protected. Even though I always get a result of 0 with MSAS, I noticed a new icon in my taskbar this morning. It was a 180Solutions icon. So I ran ran Spybot after downloading all of it's updates, and it found over 100 instances of spyware on my system. Maybe I have to tweak MSAS settings to catch more stuff, but I didn't have to do it with Spybot. I'll continue to use MSAS for some of the other features like blocking changes from my IE settings and warning of registry changes, but it definitely will not be my end all solution.

 

Am using AdAware for years, no probs, bought the Pro version as a payback for their good job.

I help the 'security guy' on our own forum, and there are always surprises, but we've not seen another article about AdAware ignoring any spy or ad sites. I just searched again for a news article about it, didn't find one.

If someone sees confirmation i'd be glad to know.

On the other hand, MS AntiSpy http://www.spywareinfo.com/