Spacehamster’s Blog

I suppose it was inevitable this would happen. A software company that produces spyware has sued ZoneAlarm for calling its software harmful to users and advising that it should be uninstalled from their computers. In other words - ZoneAlarm is being held legally liable for telling it like it is.

So the real point of this lawsuit is not that ZoneAlarm is saying misleading things about 180, but that it’s being too clear and accurate. The complaint focuses on the fact that the ZoneAlarm persists in warning its users that the suspect application’s behavior means it could be monitoring them, “despite Zone Labs having been advised by 180 to the contrary.” Along with not being willing to take 180’s word for what it does with the information its programs could be collecting, Zone Labs also is accused, rightfully so, of assigning a high risk status to 180’s apps and stating that it “is recommended that you delete this application immediately because it constitutes a privacy risk, and has no known usefulness.”

Well, that sounds like a pretty accurate description of 180Search Assistant and Zango to me. Contrast it with the way 180 describes its business practices in the complaint: “Much like other innovative Internet content companies such as Google and Microsoft, 180 has helped develop an advertising-based business model that allows it to generate revenue from original content, while continuing to allow that content to be made freely available to users,” it reads. And then this: “Similar to network television, 180 provides its users with unlimited free access to its entertainment content (game and software applications) in exchange for the user’s agreement to view a limited number of advertisements per day from 180’s sponsors.”

Oh, please. Which company is it that’s being misleading and deceptive? ZoneAlarm has every right to sound the alarm whenever it detects an application that’s doing something that could be dangerous - that’s why customers bought it. That its alerts result in removal of 180’s programs is the proof that they aren’t really the “consent-based applications” 180Solutions claims. If they were, after all, users would be unconcerned by even the most strident warnings of an anti-spyware scanner because they would presumably know what 180search Assistant or Zango is doing on their computers.