Is Trusttoolbar Spyware?

[Guest]

[kail]

Hmm.. I don't like the inference behind all of this.

I can understand that an individual company's software might mistakenly detect a certain bit of software, in this case the Trusttoolbar, as being a hijacking-performance-hogging-spy. But, I'm having trouble with all those seperate companies coming up with the same conclusion.

Even an amateur, like myself, armed with a traffic analyzer & dll/file/registry monitor quickly established that it wasn't doing anything even remotely suspicious. To me this implies a couple of things.. 1) It is likely that some of them share "detections" with each other.. blindly and/or that 2), in any event, nobody at these companies has actually checked Trusttoolbar themselves. They couldn't have. They don't check new detections?!? (Yes, I know I'm repeating myself, but I found this a stunning omission). Either that or they should have got a techie to examine Trusttoolbar rather than their Security Guard! (Guys, if you really don't have any one that can check this stuff for you, then please do drop me line. )

This is very disappointing. Shame on you all. Seriously.

Melih:

No, Comodo are not included in that above statement. It's aimed at the dectectors, rather than the detected.

There is one potential "get-out" for the detectors that would, at least, mitigate the lesser offence of the actual detection. To your knowledge, does the Trusttoolbar run and/or deploy in such a way that is similar to the way an actual hijacking-spyware does? Or, perhaps, have any of the dectectors claimed that?

[Melih]

Hmm.. I don't like the inference behind all of this.

I can understand that an individual company's software might mistakenly detect a certain bit of software, in this case the Trusttoolbar, as being a hijacking-performance-hogging-spy. But, I'm having trouble with all those seperate companies coming up with the same conclusion.

Even an amateur, like myself, armed with a traffic analyzer & dll/file/registry monitor quickly established that it wasn't doing anything even remotely suspicious. To me this implies a couple of things.. 1) It is likely that some of them share "detections" with each other.. blindly and/or that 2), in any event, nobody at these companies has actually checked Trusttoolbar themselves. They couldn't have. They don't check new detections?!? (Yes, I know I'm repeating myself, but I found this a stunning omission). Either that or they should have got a techie to examine Trusttoolbar rather than their Security Guard! (Guys, if you really don't have any one that can check this stuff for you, then please do drop me line. )

This is very disappointing. Shame on you all. Seriously.

Melih:

No, Comodo are not included in that above statement. It's aimed at the dectectors, rather than the detected.

There is one potential "get-out" for the detectors that would, at least, mitigate the lesser offence of the actual detection. To your knowledge, does the Trusttoolbar run and/or deploy in such a way that is similar to the way an actual hijacking-spyware does? Or, perhaps, have any of the dectectors claimed that?

Kail

Thank you for your commonsense! Its hard to get that from certain antispyware vendors!

I think the problem came about when BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) were seen as a no no, especially if it made a connection to "somewhere". Trusttoolbar provides identity assurance by checking the company behind a website, for that, just like a DNS server, it must ask the central server for the information about the owner of the domain so that it can display it. Some trigger happy anti-spyware vendor (we think it was Lavasoft to start with, when Lavasoft was the main antispyware vendor in those days) classified it as spyware cos it made a connection, and this without even analysing what the product actually does. And funny bit is that check out what they say about it on each antispyware site, they are all different! One claims it injects advert, the other one says it gives out personal information etc. Its a common practice to exchange samples amongst Anti virus/spwyare companies. And all I can guess is that everyone started putting it in their db without analysing it! Its cheaper to just put another signature into your anti spyware db then to actually analyse it.

So there you go.. a bit of background on poor old Trustoolbar, and we thought we were helping the community by providing Identity assurance for free! :-) It turned out to be a nightmare for us and for our brand due to irresponsible anti spyware companies and now we are trying to clean it all up!

Melih

[Melih]

ok4u (TC : www.thundercloud.net)

I was hoping you could answer my questions in my above post as fast as you answered my first post :-)

Where are you? Why are you not answering? Like you I want our users to know everything about this issue so please come and help us by answering the questions.

thank you.

Melih

[Goeroeboeroe]

ok4u writes on 11-07-06 "How can so many people be so wrong?", under a list of eight links describing Trust Toolbar as some kind of spyware.
After clicking on all the links I'm starting to understand this: it were actually five, not eight, different links. Some links were linking to different addresses from the same programs. Not very strong if you need this kind of tactics to make your point.

No, I don't use Trust Toolbar, and I'm not going to use it.
No, Comodo doesn't pay me (hint, hint)
Yes, I remove malware for about fifteen years.

Peter

[Melih]

ok4u (TC : www.thundercloud.net)

I was hoping you could answer my questions in my above post as fast as you answered my first post :-)

Where are you? Why are you not answering? Like you I want our users to know everything about this issue so please come and help us by answering the questions.

thank you.

Melih

yet another day has passed today 13th July 06 and www.thundercloud.net representatives are no where to be seen! It takes a big man to come and apologise and a small man to hide in a hole somewhere unseen ;-) ! lets see which one is the guys who run www.thundercloud.net are! I am confident that they are big enough to understand that the information they relied upon was wrong and will correct their advice accordingly! It happens, but would appreciate if they came back and corrected their advice, which was based on a wrong advice by the antispyware product they used. And now that this antispyware company who they based their decision on, has corrected their mistake, it would be only reasonable for TC to correct their advice too.

Melih

[Melih]

We are still waiting answers to our questions www.thundercloud.net ?
where are you? Why are you not answering the questions?

oh btw: the link you provided for PC Tools reporting Trusttoolbar as spyware, does not work!

you know why? Cos they removed Trusttoolbar from their db, cos they are responsible enough to do that!

How about you www.thundercloud.net , are you responsible enough to remove litigious wording from your site?

Melih

[rgreene501]

Golly, Melih!  I'm beginning to think they got under your skin.

[Melih]

Golly, Melih!  I'm beginning to think they got under your skin.

Well just trying to keep everyone honest ;-)

some understand and comply some don't!

that's life I guess :-)

Melih

[rgreene501]

that's life I guess :-)

Yes it is.

Don't let them ruin your day.  No matter how honest you may be, this kind of stuff can cause you to lose sleep.

Isn't it funny how Gator/Claria was able to sue themselves into legitimacy right before they were bought by MS?  I don't ever recall a client installing their crap on purpose or knowingly agreeing to their terms of service.

(new paragraph so I don't taint Comodo)

None of Comodo's products are installed by stealth.  None of Comodo's products broadcast their presence to illegitimate sister applications inviting them to come play on a compromised PC and as far as I can tell, none of them give cause for concern about hidden agendas.

I have decided against several Comodo applications, not because they don't work, but because they confuse my users (more like MS Office vs Open Office).  They're more productive in a familiar environment.

[Melih]

Yes it is.

Don't let them ruin your day.  No matter how honest you may be, this kind of stuff can cause you to lose sleep.

Isn't it funny how Gator/Claria was able to sue themselves into legitimacy right before they were bought by MS?  I don't ever recall a client installing their crap on purpose or knowingly agreeing to their terms of service.

(new paragraph so I don't taint Comodo)

None of Comodo's products are installed by stealth.  None of Comodo's products broadcast their presence to illegitimate sister applications inviting them to come play on a compromised PC and as far as I can tell, none of them give cause for concern about hidden agendas.

I have decided against several Comodo applications, not because they don't work, but because they confuse my users (more like MS Office vs Open Office).  They're more productive in a familiar environment.

What is frustrating is people running away from the consequences of their actions and not facing it as responsible human beings do! They have relied on other people for their informaiton which turned out to be wrong, so why not say, "sorry guys, our source of information was bad"? Why can't people take responsibility for their actions? (ok ok, this is a really general statement and i can see us all discussion the life in general because of that statement but you know what i mean :-) )

Melih


Melih

[Júštiñ™]

I agree Melih, and unfortunately there is nothing that we or anybody else can do about people like this. They can either run and hide like the Thundercloud representatives have or they can stand up and admit their mistake. It shows what kind of people run Thundercloud and I will not trust anything from them anymore, because if it turns out something is wrong then they won't admit it or try and fix it.

[panic]

What is frustrating is people running away from the consequences of their actions and not facing it as responsible human beings do! They have relied on other people for their informaiton which turned out to be wrong, so why not say, "sorry guys, our source of information was bad"? Why can't people take responsibility for their actions? (ok ok, this is a really general statement and i can see us all discussion the life in general because of that statement but you know what i mean :-) )

Melih


Melih

That would require effort and hard work always looks easy to a spectator. 

Ewen :-)

[comicfan2000]

That would require effort and hard work always looks easy to a spectator. 

Ewen :-)

 You know, I read through all the postings and I find this very strange. I have in fact tried a couple of rip off products listed in the links and will be a gentleman as to not start a fire and mention by name , but these also detected my vcom fix it anti-v as spyware and said it should be removed, along with picture it publishing, Spyware blaster, and quite a few others along with innocent registries. This was PRE- Comodo. So in fact i find it funny that not only do they say this about Comodo, but in fact throw and under the breath insult to us who post here as with the Vista forum comment along with a couple of others. I for one don't appreciate a SUPPOSED reputable company doing this. Says a lot about a company doesn't it? I had in the past emailed two of the posted and recieved less than satisfactory replies (very much the same) as to why it was detecting known good apps on my pc as spyware.

   Although a while now, <<<I believe it was, no software is perfect and they see a certain pattern and it comes up as such, that's why it's up to the user to determine what's bad or not.>>>

 And if the company in fact is reading this, you know who you are. So according to Spy....uh i mean a company , I should have removed my anti-virus, and known good programs, yet they FAILED utterly to detect Alexa, Data miner, When U save, and Gator. Very interresting indeed. You see, I test software personally and will put this crap on my pc to see how good a job it does, well , if you know who you are, you're fired.   It is damn near a crime to go about running down a known good application for your own purposes, yes to make money and sell your product at the expense of others.  You may not think taking the word of posters in a forum is valid, but in truth we are not blind nor stupid as not to see the games you play and I truly hope you use your own product so you may be running rampid with spyware while crying wolf.  As I stated, I will not mention names, that would be a real PEST, and we would all feel like TOOLS to let such things GUIDE us into such behavior. 
 I will also not mention>>What a joke, generic rip-offs , money munching, false advertising, spyware allowing, user fooling , slanderizing , snail turds. >> That would be rude and will not sink to your level and I am above such comments.


 Besides, snail turds are great for gardens and actually HELP the environment why make them seem lower?


 Comodo all the way!!!! Something you CAN trust!!!


 Paul

 

[Mors Victrix]

The only AS program I use that reported Trusttoolbar - as ''a suspecious BHO'' is X-Cleaner (from: http://www.xblock.com/). I have allready contacted them about the mistake.

I aded this url to my post to them also:
http://msn.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120501,00.asp

[AOwL]

I understand your frustration Melih...
That guy comes in here and pukes...
and he doesn't have the decency to come back and clean up when he's sober... 


SCOMODO™ for president! (better than Bush... eh...?)

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