RSSAOL Answers Privacy Concerns in AIM Beta
By David Worthington | Published April 16, 2004, 3:30 PM
America Online has primed a stealth beta release of its AIM instant messaging client. Build 5.5.3590 modifies the way that AIM handles the installation of third-party add-ons and adds support for the WeatherBug desktop weather application.
Prior production releases of AIM drew criticism for forcibly installing Wild Tangent's gaming technology, which some privacy advocates consider to be spyware.
Wild Tangent's Web driver installs an auto-updater that is enabled by default. Once installed on a host system, the autoupdater will then periodically phone home, transmitting machine specific data derived from a user's hardware and software environment back to Wild Tangent.
Wild Tangent says it uses this data to determine how its software is being used and may share it with third parties. Several popular anti-spyware utilities including Lavasoft's Ad-aware identify and remove the product.
A statement on the product's Web site claims, "WeatherBug does not monitor, collect data or 'spy' on its user base." What's more, WeatherBug says it requires its partners to adhere to the same philosophy.
When asked to comment, an AOL spokesperson acknowledged consumer privacy concerns and stated that the AIM client was modified to remedy outstanding privacy issues spawned by the practices of third party vendors who partner with AOL.
"AOL is setting a example for other companies that bundle third-party software or services. Too often, consumers install unwanted programs, or even spyware, that piggyback on mainstream applications. AOL's new approach gives consumers more choice and may better help them understand about how installing one program might include others," said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research.
Following a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which lifted post merger restriction placed upon Time Warner, America Online has been beefing up its array of real-time communication products. Version 5.5 of the AIM client includes support for multiple screen names, the ability to log into the service from more than one location, video conferencing, as well as encryption.
Yep. I had to update AIM for my kids when the beta we were using expired. The latest release candidate installed Wild Tangent, and I had a hell of a time getting rid of it. I had to use Add/Remove Programs, Ad-aware, Spybot, and a Registry tweaker to get it all out of my system, and rebooted five or six times in the process. It was very stubborn and does NOT remove itself from the Control Panel as it should.
All with NO WARNING. Typical AOL behavior.
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|It's a little bit late to complain; installation of WildTangent is now optional.
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|Why not just use trillian. Then you don't have to worry about that kind of thing.
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|How did you get rid of it? I would *really* like to know!
ben23@hmcltd2312.net
(removed the enters and *all* numbers)
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|how did the beta you were using expire? i've used one of the AIM betas for months at a time, i didnt know they were on a "timer"
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|I don't know why my AIM beta expired. It was an old one, because I still rely on DeadAim to kill the ads and I didn't want to risk putting on a beta that the free version would no longer strip ads from.
Anyway, I never use AIM myself. But my kids came around and said, "Dad, AIM no longer works. It says it's expired." So I installed the new release version and there I am trying to remove some of the most stubborn spyware I've seen in months.
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|I don't remember all the steps now, but I used Add/Remove Programs, Spybot, and AdAware, plus an old version of RegCleaner that I have on that computer. I think it was roughly in that order. Plus I went into MS Explorer and simply deleted a bunch of folders and files that refused to disappear.
Spybot said it couldn't remove some files without rebooting, but even after rebooting that refused to go.
A real pain. I would suggest doing a system restore point before messing with it.
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|Boy I had always wondered how Wild Tangent got into my system when I never installed it myself.. now I know why.
Wild Tangent is not bad though if you play a lot of Flash games, but then again, I think it has gone too far by phone home and send data that I never authorized to.
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