StopBadware.org Accuses Kazaa of Deceiving Its Users

Although the common belief is that file-sharing services only harm movie and music producers, StopBadware.org suggests that they also harm users.

StopBadware.org is an organization founded by Harvard and Oxford researchers and financed by companies like Google, Sun Microsystems and Lenovo.

The first report of the anti-badware crusaders says that the reasons why Kazaa is considered spyware is that it misleadingly advertises itself as spywarefree, does not completely remove all components during the uninstall process, interferes with computer use, and makes undisclosed modifications to other software..

But Kazaa is not the only one StopBadware.org point the finger at, the organization also accusing MediaPipe, SpyAxe and Waterfalls 3.

The irony is that SpyAxe is promoted by the producers as spyware blocker. The organization says SpyAxe is spyware because it fails to uninstall completely, is difficult to exit without purchasing the full version of the product, and because it interferes with computer use and modifies other software without disclosure.

"We think there's enormous value ... in giving consumers more control and giving them more information before they do something that could be damaging to their computers. The longer term goal is we hope that these reports ... will lead the providers of applications to operate more openly and more transparently," John Palfrey, co-director of StopBadware.org told TechTree.

The good side of this report is that only Waterfalls 3 transmits private information to other sources, the other applications being guilty of incorporating deceptive installing and uninstalling mechanisms and modifying other software applications on the computer.

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