Print this article  |  E-mail this article  |  Comment on this article

180solutions Drops Zone Labs Lawsuit

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

January 30, 2006, 3:47 PM

Adware provider 180solutions has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit it filed in November against security software vendor Zone Labs after claiming the company was making "false and misleading statements" about its products.

180solutions did not offer a reason for dismissing the suit; however, the company came under immense public fire after its actions were picked up by the press. Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm tool alerts users to the existence of 180's Zango software, and says it may log keystrokes and track Web sites visited.

180 claimed these accusations were false, alleging that ZoneAlarm caused "thousands of 180's customers to remove or otherwise uninstall Zango and/or 180SA," adding that, "180 has been damaged by the wrongful removal of its applications caused by ZoneLab's tortious conduct."

Although 180's Search Assistant and Zango tools may not be solely designed to spy on unsuspecting users, they do track what Web sites are being visited and deliver advertisements based on that data. 180 maintains that ads are delivered anonymously using a unique identification number.

But do users really want an application monitoring them in the background? Zone Labs and other anti-spyware vendors don't think so, and recommend removal of the software. Zone Labs said it did not make any changes to its software due to the lawsuit.

"From the inception of the suit, we believed it had no merit," said John Slavitt, general counsel for Zone Labs parent Check Point. "ZoneAlarm alerts are triggered by the behavior of a program, not its name. If the 180Solutions software exhibits suspicious behavior, we alert our customers accordingly. We did not make any concessions or reach a settlement after the suit was filed."

Shortly after filing its lawsuit against Zone Labs, 180solutions promised to clean up its act by ending the distribution of 180search Assistant and releasing Seekmo Search Assistant instead, which it said includes technologies to help reduce the number of unauthorized installations.

But some security experts, such as Sunbelt Software president Alex Eckelberry, remained skeptical. "Let's not forget that a crapload of 180 installs occur on sites that push an install on you that you don't actually need," he said in December.

Add a Comment (25 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Name (required):

E-mail (required):

Enter Your Comment:

By MarKomus

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 10:08 AM

So now they will come out with a NEW product with BETTER safety features (Read: They will come out with the SAME product repackaged with EVEN MORE adware).

Score: 0

By athome

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 8:20 AM

First 180 is doing nothing more when it logs the sites you visit and issues ads based upon that data. That is adware!

The real issue is that 180 corrupts registry data, steals resources, loads more crap onto your computer, and crashes the system. This is what people hate about the program. Zone Alarm is just giving you a heads up.

The whole issue of privacy is idiotic in the context that people use it. If you search on a search engine(GOOGLE, MSN, etc) they are keeping data on you - more than you know. Ironic that Google claims they are protecting your privacy, when they are abusing it to begin with. The entire Internet existence is built upon tracking you - from cookies to programs.

It has become such a mess with regard to adware defintions and antivirus software identifying and removing them. It isn't a matter of definition, but if "I" or "You" want them on our PC - for whatever reason we so choose.

Since we aren't given the option to install(most cases) such crapware, we should be given the oportunity to remove it. Not knowing all variations of the identification process, we in turn rely on those(Zone Alarm) whose business it is to identify. We installed those programs and tust the companies in their ability to identify and remove them. If this act is deemed illegal by ad companies, it will only be a matter of time before our computers will be loaded with them when we buy it from the shelf(which does happen already).

Our computer will not be ours, but belong to Dell, eMachine, HP, or Gateway and we will not be able to remove programs that they installed from the start. Have you ever looked at the new PCs of today and all the crapware that is loaded on. I tell all my customers that a PC is just a PC, but they should hire someone like myself to clean all the crap off their PCs when they first buy it, rather than pay a great sum of money to have the computer reinstalled after it has been corrupted by these companies.

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 10:23 AM

Quote "Have you ever looked at the new PCs of today and all the crapware that is loaded on"

Lol, not only do we have Malware, Spyware, and Adware. We now have "Crapware". Oh well, has anyone seen my Crapware removal tool?

On a lighter note what athome state's is 100% correct. MSN is giving away our search data, (so all you porno weirdo's out there becareful) Google on the other hand does not, they do hold on to a partial amount of our data, but for search resouces. All google uses it for is to find out what people search most on the web so they can help server thier customers better. Google as of this moment is in the courts fighting for us and our privacy. Our government wants our data to use it to catch child pornography abusers, File Sharing etc. So pretty much don't use MSN if you curious and wanna see how a bomb is made, because you might have the FBI knocking on your door because THEIR curious on why you wanna know how to make a bomb.

As far as crapware goes, athome is right again. You buy a peice that wasn't custom, or atleast an alienware or an Acer, somthing along those lines. You're gonna have to call someone like us to come out to your home, or bring your computer to their shop, get charged so much an hour to get your PC cleaned up so it'll run the way it should. :)

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 9:58 AM

"they are keeping data on you - more than you know."

And your point? They can keep it all they want....that's private. It's when they start giving it away or selling it that it becomes a problem.

Score: 0

By athome

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 11:26 AM

what do you think they are doing with it? I can't believe that you are this naive.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 11:34 AM

lmao..

Why do they *have* to be doing something with it?
I can't believe you are that paranoid.

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 12:22 PM

Maybe because they are 180 and they are EVIL dirtbags who would sell their own mothers souls to hijack your browser. Well thats just my opinion of them, their not the only ones out there but they are getting most of the attention lately. And on the surface, they try now to wear the cloak of legitimacy, but the sleeves dont quite cover up the tentacles.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 12:40 PM

Try reading the parent of the thread before adding to it.

Thanks.

(You might have noticed we were talking about search-engines, had you done so)

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 12:53 PM

from parent - "The entire Internet existence is built upon tracking you - from cookies to programs."

Umm does that not include both (in reguards to keeping dats on us)? Oh well as you wish then.
It wasn't a shot at the search engines or cookies, just the programs. I took his argument to apply more to the adware since that is what the main article is about... perhaps that is my mistake then.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 2:25 PM

lmao..

Wow. Score 0 for reading comprehension.

My first reply to his included a quote from his post:

"If you search on a search engine(GOOGLE, MSN, etc) they are keeping data on you - more than you know."

This is what we were discussing. Capiche?

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 3:33 PM

i just said perhaps it was my mistake... Capiche? Score 0 for not reading my last line :)

Edit: yes i realize he brought up search engines, but he brought it up in the context of an article that has nothing to do with search engines, to what i thought was to make a point about collecting data, to which i was making the point that these adware companies collect data for nefarious purposes.. to which your comment seemed to me to point to...yatta yatta i have reading comprehension i don't however have mind reading. Oh forget it, chalk it up to miscommunication. It happens.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 3:35 PM

So it requires mind-reading to follow a thread?

We really don't need to get into this. All you needed to do was read the first post by me in this thread to have *not* replied looking like an ass.

You chose not to do that. No excuse needed, it happens to everyone. mmmmkay?

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 3:46 PM

I did read the first post by you, and in the context of the whole article and his comment, i felt you were replying in a more general way about the adware.. Again, it was my mistake. Actually yes sometimes i find it does require mind reading with some people :) (not necessarily you i mean people in general)

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 5:51 PM

Heh...some people require... I concede your point.

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Jan 31, 2006 - 1:15 AM

As well they should. Stupid dinks.

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Jan 31, 2006 - 12:31 AM

I guess they realized they had a snowball's chance in hell at actually succeeding.

On a completely separate note, Alex Eckelberry is now cool in my book just because he said "crapload." =p

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 9:27 PM

Seekmo, another one i will be removing at every encounter. Die 180.

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 8:37 PM

Yeah........ just woke up

Score: 0

By zee7

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 7:26 PM

Smart move. This may help stave off the inevitable bankruptcy a bit longer.

Score: 0

By eman8ions

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 5:46 PM

"180solutions did not offer a reason for dismissing the suit"

How about the allegations not being either of "false and misleading...".

Score: 0

By lil2short2see

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 4:39 PM

flashing ads on your computer after visiting a certain site makes me want to restore it, which i will not be very happy

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 4:33 PM

Can you say "OOPS!"

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 4:16 PM

I'm sure someone on their "legal counsel" realized that their clients are idiots.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 3:58 PM

Maybe they thought...no, nevermind, I bet the main problem is that they DIDN'T think!

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 3:49 PM

They dropped the suit because they realised it was stupid and unnessicary, just like their software. :P

Score: 0

Nov 21 - 6:51 PM ET Coalition urges better laws for e-mail and cell phone privacy

Nov 21 - 6:42 PM ET How is Internet advertising faring in this bad economy?

Nov 21 - 6:15 PM ET From out of the Amazon Cloud, an AWS winner emerges

Nov 21 - 5:20 PM ET Mufin music finder enters public beta, adds widgets

Nov 21 - 5:01 PM ET Google launches its SearchWiki semantics plug-in

Nov 21 - 4:57 PM ET Asus previews a slimmer, less costly Eee PC

Nov 21 - 4:32 PM ET New Adobe Media Player ushers in AIR 1.5

Nov 21 - 2:11 PM ET AT&T to add Pantech's low-cost C630 phone to 3G lineup

Nov 21 - 1:11 PM ET iPhone gets firmware 2.2 update

Nov 21 - 11:51 AM ET The Dell surprise: Higher earnings on lower revenue