ComodoUsageReportService.exe

Discontinued Products Beta Corner - CPM
1

This appeared (or so I believe) after I installed CPM beta.

What does it do, why is it installed?

2

i think it collects usage data for CPM cuse its a beta

3

:-TU

Cheers darthfirefox.

I kinda guessed that the ComodoUsageReportService most likely collected usage reports, its nice to get the confirmation.

I must have missed the bit in the EULA that stated that by installing this software I give permission for Comodo to monitor my computer usage and send reports be to Comodo.

4

I’ve read in forums that it is used for updates also (not sure though).

5

I believe it also examine how people are using the GUI - possibly measuring how often each function is used - as a tool to help improve the GUI and the layout and flow of the program.

Ewen :slight_smile:

6

Cheers for the replies. I can appreciate the effort in trying to improve and optimize the way Comodo programs are used and if this produces measurable improvements then that gets a ‘yay’ from me, but it would have been nice if it was an ‘opt in’ program rather then a ‘need to use a 3rd party program to stop it from launching at start-up as it runs secretly in the background’ kind of program (which is my definition of spyware).

Or at least made more obvious during installation that Comodo will run a secret service in the background to collect usage stats.

I’m just a little unhappy at the apparent secretive nature of it all. I appreciate that it is only for beta programs and it isn’t something that is going out to the general public through the stable releases, but a slightly more visible warning would have been nice… or did I miss such a announcement somewhere?

Even searching these forums for “ComodoUsageReportService.exe” turned up nothing.

7

Agreed. We’re discuissing this at the moment.

8

Yeah.

9
but it would have been nice if it was an 'opt in' program rather then a 'need to use a 3rd party program to stop it from launching at start-up as it runs secretly in the background' kind of program (which is my definition of spyware).

Or at least made more obvious during installation that Comodo will run a secret service in the background to collect usage stats.


Alot of companys do that to improve the product, That main difference is that comodo doesn’t try to hide that fact from the user. They even called it ComodoUsageReportService.exe Almost no other company will do that

While other companys try to hide that by various means like labaling it something like “avups.exe” or svchost.exe and other ways

'need to use a 3rd party program to stop it from launching at start-up as it runs secretly in the background' kind of program (which is my definition of spyware
My definition of spyware is a little different. It when a company goes out of there way to be all stealth about it and trys to hide it from the user. Labeling it as ComodoUsageReportService.exe is not a secret because the file means what it says (There's no trickery in the name of it)

If there is going to be a opt-out option, then it should be clearly obvious and/or explain in extremely simple terms on ComodoUsageReportService is and what it does and more IMPORTANTLY WHAT IT DOESN’T DO :slight_smile: <— If a 13 year old can understand it, then your guaranteed most people will understand it. If someone complains on the forum that they didn’t understand it. Then it’s because it’s either there ignorant, didn’t bother to read it, or it could just be a mentally challenged person.

Just an idea

10

Other then calling it ComodoUsageReportService.exe how did they not hide it? They

  • didn’t give any indication that it was going to be installed,
  • nor did they give any indication that it is running (until you dive into the task manager) and
  • there is no indication as to what it actually does.

That doesn’t seem ‘out in the open’ to me. Would it be ok for spyware to run under the same circumstances provided it was called SpywareService.exe ?

It has been surmised that it is just for gathering stats on how users use the Comodo GUI, someone else here surmised it ‘might’ be for updates. A Comodo Usage Report might be used gather reports on how we use the computer in general, what programs we run and how they interact, who knows?! Considering it installed itself (unasked) when I installed Comodo Program Manager which is designed to monitor every change installed programs make on my computer (or at least those programs installed after CPM is installed) it is not unreasonable to surmise that the usage report service is capable of tracking usage across my entire computer, CPM certainly can since that is the whole point of it.

So you believe that it is perfectly acceptable for a company that is “Creating Trust Online” to install a program without telling the user, to run that program constantly in the background (again, without telling the user) and to use it to gather ‘usage reports’ without telling the user what exactly a ‘usage report’ is? Of course we can assume that it is only metrics on Comodo GUI use, but it is not obvious and frankly if a 13 year old whats to assume something then they are welcome to, I’d rather have facts about what is going on then pretending to know it all.

I understand what the term ‘usage report’ means (thank god for my masters in comp sci or I might have been in trouble though :wink: ), what is very unclear is the scope of the term, is it a report on the usage of a program, usage of the internet, usage of the computer, disk usage, memory usage, IO usage, PCI-E usage, sub-system usage etc.

“If someone complains on the forum that they didn’t understand it. Then it’s because it’s either there ignorant, didn’t bother to read it, or it could just be a mentally challenged person.”

I’m not sure what point you are trying to make in the above comment and reading it in the context of the rest of your post I cannot decide if it is directed towards me personally or to anyone in general who comments about this hidden program, either way I’m not sure ‘mentally challenged’ is appropriate in any case. Insults really just reflect on the person making them, they don’t actually forward the argument any.

Just a thought.

11

Aren’t we making so much noise for a little think? ???

12

We might be.

But if different company tried this, installing a program without asking, running it without telling, providing no way to disable it and telling you nothing about it, then we (as a collective security conscious group of people) would be up in arms about it.

So we might not be making too much noise, maybe not even enough noise is being made?

If Comodo asked me to run this program, explained what it did and was open and upfront about it I would be more then happy to run it for them, but to re-iterate - it was installed WITHOUT permission, it runs WITHOUT permission, it runs hidden from the user (unless you open task manager) and it is a mystery as to what exactly it does. Aside from the fact that it comes from Comodo, how is that not spyware?

13

You said well, if it was a “different company”… I think we can trust Comodo, can’t we?

Lack of documentation…
Lack of support on CPM. I’m experiencing that.
Also at CB, CCS… Seems that CIS has all the attentions.

14

That fact I posted this on the beta sub-forum of CPM rather then somewhere more public shows (I think) that I do trust Comodo (or at least I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt).

Am I happy with Comodo? Not particularly. Am I willing to trust them? Yes, but they are stretching that a bit… Trust is hard to earn, and ever so easy to lose unfortunately.

15

Sure.

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here is my look at it, you trust comodo enough to go shopping online and have them secure your credit card numbers, banks trust them enough to secure their online banking facilities but you don’t trust them enough with your computer that I highly doubt contains anything of any value to them. I would understand if comodo was some small no name company but they are not. Also they are a company that was originally a security company and expanded to other area unlike some that were not and moved into the security field. I would be more worried about a company that had nothing to do with the security industry and then buying a security company, that is what would worry me. Who knows what intentions they have.

17
Aren't we making so much noise for a little think?
I was thinking the same thing
If there is going to be a opt-out option, then it should be clearly obvious and/or explain in extremely simple terms on ComodoUsageReportService is and what it does and more IMPORTANTLY WHAT IT DOESN'T DO Smiley <--- If a 13 year old can understand it, then your guaranteed most people will understand it. If someone complains on the forum that they didn't understand it. Then it's because it's either there ignorant, didn't bother to read it, or it could just be a mentally challenged person..
I don't see how you can understand everything else in this topic, but you claim not to understand that paragraph.
I cannot decide if it is directed towards me personally
There you go again blowing it out of proportion, I wasn't directed towards you, but you can interpret it any way you like :)
Trust is hard to earn, and ever so easy to lose unfortunately.
I agree, (A good example) AVG Free comes packed with a bit of adware that may reflect in your search results. The modification consists in setting Yahoo! as the default search provider for both the browser search bar, as well as address bar under Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. On a different note, the application can also pin a toolbar of its own in the web browser, designed to verify every link you access. (Link below is the reference) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Antivirus-Freebies-AVG-and-Avira-140475.shtml Comodo doesn't pull any of that ■■■■ :)
18

[at] everyone,

Deep breath, big glass of water and a chill pill, please.

The primary opposing views are 1) the usage report service is no big deal, and 2) whether it’s a big deal or not is irrelevant, it’s installation should be more public.

These are opposing opinions here and both of them have merit to some degree.

Please don’t allow emotion to overrun logic or tolerance.

The service is being discussed with the developers.

Cheers,
Ewen :slight_smile:

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Thanks panic.

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Please don't allow emotion to overrun logic or tolerance.
Your right Panic, I think I went a little overboard

Thanks for jumping in :■■■■ Your next ■■■■ is on me :slight_smile: